


I'll Be There For You

by summer_of_1985



Category: Friends (TV), Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dustin is Joey - the other comedian, Eleven is Rachael - clueless to Mike's feelings, F/M, Lucas is Chandler - one of the comedians of the group - in love with Max, Max is Monica - even though her and Mike aren't siblings - it works, Mike is Ross - hopelessly in love with El, Will is Phoebe - clueless
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 23:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13646448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summer_of_1985/pseuds/summer_of_1985
Summary: 236 episodes, 10 seasons, 10 years, 6 unforgettable characters, 1 iconic show.





	1. Season 01, Episode 07: "The One with the Blackout"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Brooklyn suffers from a blackout, Mike tries to tell El that he likes her, and Lucas gets stuck in an ATM vestibule with a model.

**Season 1, Episode 7: "The One with the Blackout"**

* * *

Jane 'El' Eleanor Hopper is stood by a microphone in the local coffee shop, where she works as a waitress to help Max with the rent on their apartment. One of her best friend's William 'Will' Byers is stood just off the stage waiting to be introduced.

"Everybody? Shh, shhh. Uhhh... Espresso Express is proud to present the music of Mr Will Byers," El said, smiling over at Will and starting off the clapping as the rest of the people joined in. El got off the stage and let Will sit in the chair he's become slowly accustomed to.

"Hi. Um, I want to start with a song that's about that moment when you suddenly realise what life is all about," Will explains, adjusting the guitar on his lap. "OK, here we go," Will shows a small smile to his small group of friends that are sat on the sofa. He softly stums a single chord when the lights shut down. "OK, thank you very much," Will said, the sarcasm dripping from his lips like pennies.

* * *

Meanwhile, in an ATM vestibule of a bank, Lucas is stood inside. He was just about to open the door when the lights cut out. He spins around hopelessly before trying the door multiple times. He was trapped inside until the power was back...

"Oh,  **great**. This is just..." Lucas starts before his eyes focus on what he could describe as a gorgeous model in the vestibule with him. Without her noticing, he does a little dance of celebration.

He was trapped. In an ATM vestibule. With a model.

* * *

**Opening Credits**

* * *

Max and El had gone back to their apartment with Mike and Will. El was looking out of the window, looking over the Brooklyn skyline. Max was on the phone with her's and Mike's mother.

"Wow, this is so cool, you guys. The entire city is blacked out!" El exclaims, looking around and seeing pitch blackness. Mike looked over at her and smiled - he'd had feelings for her since he was 14, they never once faded away.

"Mom says it's all of Manhattan, parts of New York and Queens, and they have no idea when it's coming back on," Max said, to her 3 friends. El stood by the sofa, only an arms distance from Mike.

"Wow, you guys, this is big," El said, sitting in the single chair that was closer to Max's room than to her own. Mike still kept looking over at her with what Max called his 'lovesick puppy eyes'.

"Pants and a sweater? Why, mom? Who am I gonna meet in a blackout? Power company guys? Eligible looters? Could we talk about this later?" Max spoke into the phone. Even though Max was only two years older than Mike, he was still seen as their precious golden child, because Mike was able to skip a grade and graduate a year before her and El. "OK," Max then hangs up on her mother.

Will looks over the sofa to Max, and holds out his hand. "Can I borrow the phone? I want to call my apartment and check on my grandma?" Max handed the phone to Will and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. He then focuses on Max and asks, "What's my number?"

Max and El look at Will like he's lost a few screws from the toolbox... He's most likely lost over three-quarters of them...

"Well, I never call  **me** ," El nods in agreement, making Mike nod with her before Max gives Will his number.

* * *

In the ATM vestibule, Eve Goodyear is on her phone, most likely about to ring someone important to her. Lucas is pacing the length of the bank area, keeping a good enough distance from the model.

 _"Oh my god, it's that Victoria Secret model. Something... something Goodyear,"_ Lucas thought to himself, the stunning model looking over at him like he was a weirdo every now and then.

She dialled a number and spoke to the person on the other end. "Hi Mom, it's Eve,"

 _"She's right, it's Eve. Ever Goodyear. Oh my god. I am trapped in an ATM vestibule with Eve Goodyear!"_ Lucas paced the ATM vestibule, continuing to talk to himself. When he paused to think,  _"Is it a vestibule? Maybe it's an atrium. Oh, yeah, **that**_ _is the part to focus on, you idiot!"_

While Lucas continued to beat himself up in his mind, Jill spoke to her mother over her phone, "yeah, I'm fine. I'm just stuck at the bank, in an ATM vestibule,"

 _"Eve says vestibule... I'm going with vestibule,"_ Lucas thought, nodding to himself as he made his mind up about whether it was 'vestibule' or 'atrium'.

"I'm fine," Eve continued to speak to her mother, not taking another look at poor Lucas. "No, I'm not alone... I don't know some guy,"

 _"Oh! Some guy. Some guy. 'Hey Eve, I saw you with some guy last night. Yes, he was **some guy** ," _Lucas struts around the vestibule proudly, while Eve looks at him, once again, like he was a weirdo.

* * *

In Max and El's apartment, which is covered in candles which have been lit, as El lights the final one in the middle of the coffee table, clueless to the way Mike is looking at her. Dustin walks in with a menorah as the candles have been lit.

"Hi everyone," he greets, closing the door behind him, receiving a chorus of greetings in return.

"And officiating at tonight's blackout, is Rabbi Henderson," Mike joked, earning a laugh from El - which continuously made his heart flutter with joy. He'd gotten a laugh out of her!

"Well, Lucas's old roommate was Jewish, and these are the only candles we have, so... Happy Chanukah, everyone," Dustin said, tipping his head - also getting a laugh off El - and he set the menorah on the small dining table.

While all of this was going on, Will had been stood at the window gazing out at the blackened Brooklyn skyline. "Eww, look. Ugly Naked Guy lit a bunch of candles," despite having 'come out of the closet' with his best friends and close family, he still had standards.

They all came rushing to the window and watched Ugly Naked Guy. When they were suddenly extremely grossed out and then flinched in pain.

"That had to hurt!" El exclaimed as she turned away from the window, her face written with pure disgust.

* * *

Lucas paces the length of the ATM vestibule, still talking to himself,  _"Alright, alright, alright. It's been fourteen and a half minutes and you still have not said one word. Oh God, do something. Just make contact, smile!"_

Lucas looks over at her and smiles, and he receives what he would call Eve's soft and sweet signature smile.

 _"There you go!"_ Lucas starts smiling like an idiot, which starts to make Eve scared as a frightened expression overtakes her smile.  _"You're definitely scaring her,"_

Eve stands awkwardly against the hanging table, before speaking up. "Would you like to call somebody?" She asks, offering Lucas her phone.

 _"Yeah, about 300 guys I went to high school with!"_ Lucas says in his head and is thankful that it didn't slip out. "Yeah, thanks," He says to her and taking the phone from her manicured fingertips.

* * *

While Mike and El are having what El would call a friendly chat, the phone sat on the dining table rings. When Max answers, it's Lucas.

"Hello?" Max asks, smiling at the back of her brother's head as he continued to chat to El.

"Hey, it's me," Lucas said, smiling slightly when he'd heard Max's voice sound down the phone.

Max smiled when Lucas's voice came through her end of the phone, she put her hand over the speaking part of the phone. "It's Lucas!" The rest of their group cheered when they found out Lucas was on the other end of the line. "Are you OK?" Max asks, holding the phone to her ear.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lucas said, before trying to cover up what he was about to say. "I'm trppd in an ATM vstbl wth Ee Gdyr,"

Max's eyebrows crinkled as she was extremely confused over what Lucas had just said. This caused El to look away from her sweet best friend Mike (who had an extremely soft spot for her). "What?"

"I'm trppd... in an ATM vstbl... wth **Ee Gdyr**!" Lucas said, starting to slightly get angry, even though it's not Max's fault that she doesn't understand his and Dustin's code. 

El watched as even more confusion flooded Max's face, clueless to the soft puppy dog heart eyes look that Mike was giving her. "I have no idea what you just said," Max said into the phone.

Lucas sighed and put his head in his hand. "Put Dustin on the phone," he didn't want to sound mean, but it was really starting to frustrate him. He heard the rustling of the phone being handed over to Dustin.

"What's up?" Dustin asked, the phone pressed against his ear, as he moved to stand by the dining table.

When Lucas heard Dustin's voice sound down the phone, he sighed with relief, he was finally going to get through to Dustin rather than Max. "I'm trpped... in an ATM vstbl... with  **EE GDYR** ," Lucas muttered, making Dustin's eyes widen in shock.

"Oh my God! He's trapped in an ATM vestibule with Eve Goodyear!" Dustin announced to the group, Max stood further in the apartment, miming to El about how quickly he understood that. EL shrugging at Max. "Lucas, listen," Dustin said into the phone before muttering something down the phone to Lucas.

"Yeah, like that thought never entered my mind," Lucas said sarcastically.

* * *

Later on, still in Max and El's apartment, and the five friends are sitting around the coffee table, happily talking.

"Alright, somebody," El said, giggling like crazy, making Mike look over at her with his 'signature lovesick puppy eyes'.

"Ok, I'll go. OK, senior year of college... on a pool table," Max admitted, a red blush flowing up her neck and dusting her plain cheeks. She and Mike were complete opposites, despite being siblings.

"Whoooaa!" The rest of the group said, looking shocked at Max, although El didn't look all that shocked, considering she already knew this.

"That's my sister," Mike tried to but in, however, he was overruled by Dustin saying his weirdest place.

"Ok... my weirdest place would have to be... the women's room on the second floor of the Brooklyn Public Library," Dustin admitted, making Max look at him, shocked.

"Oh my God! What were you doing in the library?" Max questions, making El (once again) giggle like crazy.

 "Wills, what about you?" Mike asked, looking away from a giggling El to one of his very best friends.

"Oh... Milwaukee," Will said, making El gasp with shock - that had been the holiday she went on with Will to see their mutual pen pal. After El's father had practically dropped her off the face of the earth at just 19, her adoptive father had taken her in and just recently - now that she's 24, her adoptive father married Will's mother.

"Um... Mike?" El asked, looking up at the man who had once captured her heart.

"Disneyland, 1989, 'It's a Small World After All'," Mike said, scratching the back of his head. El, once again, lets out a gasp before she started to giggle at Mike.

"No way!" The rest said, staring at Mike like they were hypnotised by what he had done.

"The ride broke down. So, Amanda and I went behind a couple of those mechanical Dutch children... then they fixed the ride, and we were asked never to return to the Magic Kingdom," Mike said, like his sister - a red blush flooding his neck and painting itself on his freckled cheeks.

"Oh, El," Will said, looking over at the tiny woman sat on the floor in front of the TV. El looked at the group, not wanting to admit what the weirdest place for her was.

"Oh come on, I already went," El brushed off, slightly curling in on herself, a slight twinge of pink embarrassment filling her pale cheeks.

"You did not go!" Max stated while the rest of the group egged her on. "Come on," the rest of the group chanted.

"Oh, alright," El sighed, sitting up properly. "The weirdest place would have to be..." El then lets out a heavy sigh, "oh, the foot of the bed,"

"Step back," Mike exclaimed, before Dustin exclaimed after him, "We have a winner!"

* * *

A while later, Mike and El are sat on the floor talking, Dustin is sat on the sofa watching the pair interact while Max and Will are outside. Mike is looking at El with his soft eyes and is like an open book towards her, while El is that little bit closed off, mainly because her 'father' ditched her at 19.

"I just never had a relationship with that kind of passion, you know, where you have to have somebody right there, in the middle of the theme park," El said, being serious, but a little giggle slips out between her lips.

"Well, it was the only thing to do there that didn't have a line," Mike said, making it sound like an extremely stupid excuse.

"There, well, see? James wouldn't kiss me on a miniature golf course." El sighed, the picture of her ex-fiancée and her in some miniature golf course in the middle of Los Angeles, and he just flat out refused to kiss her.

"Come on," Mike said, looking over at her, El looked extremely embarrassed, having just admitted that to a man she hasn't seen since her graduation at 18.

"No, he said we were holding up the people behind us," El scoffed, her head rolling back onto the chair behind her. No wonder she left him at the alter...

"And you didn't marry him because...?" Mike said, sarcasm dripping from his lips, he always was jealous of any man that had El.

"I mean, do you think there are people who go through life never having that kind of..." El questions, looking over at Mike, the sparkle in his heart that had been the first thing he ever noticed about her, was now fully with boredom.

"Probably. But you know, I'll tell you something. Passion is way overrated," Mike said, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Yeah right," El sighed, shuffling where she was sat on the floor, her legs and feet slowly becoming numb.

"It is. Eventually, it kind of... burns out. But hopefully, what you're left with is trust and security, and... well, in case of my ex-wife, lesbianism. So, you know, for all of those people who miss out on that passion... thing, there's all that other good stuff," Mike said, shrugging his shoulders simply, sighing.

"OK," El sighed in reply, looking at the horrible wooden floor. The only difference between this floor and the one at the father that abandoned her's kitchen floor is that one was a heated floor.

"But, um... I don't think that's going to be you," Mike said, fiddling with his thumbs, too scared to look up at her.

"You don't," El said, raising a judgement eyebrow at him.

"Uh-uh. See, I see... big passion in your future," Mike spoke, kind of referring to himself, knowing that she wouldn't get the reference.

"Really?" El asks, looking up at him with her eyes starting to sparkle in the candlelight.

"Mmmm," Mike nods at her, smiling softly at the small woman.

"You do?" El asks, a smile making its way onto her face.

"I do," Mike replied, smiling at her, watching as the sparkle was reignited in her eyes.

"Oh Mike, you're so great," El rubs his head and gets up, walking away from Mike and Dustin - who had been ignored this whole time.Mike, was extremely pleased with himself and gets up from the floor as well.

"It's never gonna happen," Dustin said, leaning back on the sofa, looking up at Mike.

"What?" Mike innocently, looking down at Dustin, towering over the younger man - even though when Dustin is stood up, Mike still towers over him.

"You and El," Dustin said, motioning in the direction to where El wondered off to, most likely to talk to Will and Max.

"What?" Mike acts surprised when Dustin said that but paused as the words sunk in. "Why not?" He asks.

"Because you waited too long to make your move, and now you're  **friend zoned** ," Dustin

"No, no, no. I'm not in the zone," Mike protests, crossing his arms over his chest like he was protecting his heart from Dustin's harsh words.

"Mike, you're the mayor of the zone," Dustin replied, jokingly and watching as Mike rolled his eyes at Dustin.

Mike rolled his eyes and replied, "I'm taking my time, alright? I'm laying the groundwork. Yeah. I mean, every day I get just a little bit closer to..." He was cut off by Dustin.

"Priesthood! Look, Mike, I'm telling you, she has no idea what you're thinking. If you don't ask her out soon you're going to end up stuck in the zone forever," Dustin joked, neither of them heard the door to the balcony slowly open and the soft voices of El, Max and Will enter.

"I will, I will. See, I'm waiting for the right moment," Mike was cut off, once again, by Dustin giving him a look. "What? What, now?"

"Yeeeeaaaahhh! What's messing you up? The wine? The candles? The moonlight? You've just got to go up to her and say, 'El, I think that...'," As Dustin came to his concluding sentence, El walked back into the room behind them.

"Shhhh!" Mike quietened Dustin, as he saw El around the corner and walk towards them.

"What are you shushing?" El asked, looking confused between Dustin and Mike.

"We're shushing... because... we're trying to hear something. Listen," Mike finishes and everyone in the room at that current moment in time stopped talking to listen. "Don't you hear that?" Mike asked, looking down at El, trying to put on a face of confusion towards her.

"Ahhh!" El says, doing a fake nod, saying that she does know what he is on about... slightly.

"See?! Mike exclaims, looking proudly at El like she'd heard what he had heard - even though they'd heard nothing but the usual crickets in the evening of Brooklyn.

"Huh," El agrees but looks very confused. She turns around and walks away back to the balcony, to look at the Brooklyn skyline.

* * *

While Mike had been had been trying to admit his feelings to El, Lucas was still trapped in the ATM vestibule with Eve Goodyear.

"Would you like some gum?" Eve offered, holding the packet out towards him.

"Um, is it sugarless?" Lucas asked, mentally beating himself up for saying such a stupid thing to the supermodel stood before him

Eve checks the packet of gum in her hand, "Sorry, it's not," she looked extremely confused as to why Lucas asked if it was sugarless before she put it back in her pocket.

"Oh, then no thanks," Lucas said before talking to himself in his mind.  _"What the hell was that? Mental note: If Eve Goodyear offers you gum, you take it. If she offers you mangled animal carcass, you take it,"_

* * *

As Lucas was beating himself up, for the millionth time in the past half an hour, Will was sitting on a lone chair in front of the TV, singing to himself.

"Brooklyn has no power, and the milk is getting sour. But to me, it is not scary, 'cause I stay away from dairy... la la la, la la, la la..." He nodded to himself and wrote down the lyrics in his old and tattered songbook.

While Will was writing down the lyrics he'd just sung, Mike was standing up from the slightly ratty sofa and shakes his hands as if he was shaking away his nerves away. "OK, here goes," the giant spoke looking down at the younger man.

"Are you going to do it?" Dustin asked, standing up and smiling proudly at Mike. The beanstalk was finally doing to admit his feelings to their short stack of waffles.

"I'm going to do it," Mike nodded, looking over at where the balcony would be glistening in what would have been the Brooklyn nightlight, and he could see the soft outline of Jane 'El' Hopper.

"Do you want any help?" Dustin offered before Mike stopped him in his tracks, by grabbing him by the shoulders.

"You come out there, you're a dead man," Mike threatened, looking 

"Good luck, man," Dustin wishes, patting Mike on the back and smiling at the head over heels Bigfoot.

"Thanks," Mike accepted the hug that Dustin had. "OK, here goes," He continued to smile and walked out onto the balcony.

As Mike walked out onto the balcony, Max walked out of her room and started to head towards the balcony. Dustin gently held onto her arm and stopped her from walking out onto the balcony.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked, looking down at bite-sized Wheeler, and smiling at her.

"Outside," She said, raising an eyebrow like the man stood before she was crazy. Where else would she be? Mount Everest?

"You can't go out there," He stated, still softly holding onto Max's arm, not making a mark on her arm.

"Why not?" She asked, slipping her arm out of his hold slowly.

"Because of... the reason," He tries to explain, looking around her's and El's apartment, trying not to seem suspicious - and failing dramatically.

"And that would be?" She asks again, her eyebrows still raised at the man before her.

"I, um, can't tell you," He scratched the back of his head, and let out a sigh.

She looked at him confuse and simply raised an eyebrow at him, "Dustin, what's going on?"

Dustin sighed heavily and looked down at the floor before looking up at her, "OK, you've got to promise that you'll never, ever tell Mike that I told you," she raised her other eyebrow, complete confusion written on her face.

"About what?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and looking judgementally at the man stood before her.

"He's planning your birthday party," He lied, his heart thumping heavily in his chest, he hated lying to people (mainly not to Max nor El).

"Oh my God! I love him!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands happily and smiling brightly.

Will walked over to where the two were standing from the bathroom, "You'd better act surprised," As Will came further into earshot, his eyebrows crinkled and he decided to speak up.

"About what?" The smaller boy questioned, crossing his arms in the same way that Max's were crossed in.

Max bounced on the wooden floor, most likely annoying the old man in the apartment downstairs, "My surprise party!"

"What surprise party?" Will questioned again, looking at Dustin and then at Max, before realising that he might have been the last told - that's if El hasn't been told, yet...

"Oh stop it. Dustin already told me," she smiled, spinning around happily, and the confusing look dropped off Will's face instantly.

"Well, he didn't tell me," The fun-sized youngest Byers said, he knew it was a surprise party for Max, but he just doesn't like being told last.

Both Will and Max look over at Dustin for an explanation, "hey, don't look at me. This is Mike's thing,"

Will rolls his eyes at one of his best friend's stood before him, "This is so typical. I'm always the last one to know everything,"

"No, you are not. We tell you stuff," The only girl currently stood in the group of three announced looking at the small man.

"Yuh-huh! I was the last one to know when Lucas got bitten by the peacock at the zoo. I was the last one to know when you had a crush on Dustin when he was moving in," Will said, making Dustin's eyes light up at what he said, and for Max motioning for Will to stop talking at that moment in time. "Looks like I was the second to last,"

* * *

While Dustin had told a huge lie to Will and Max, Mike and El were sat on the girl's balcony looking over the blacked out city.

"Hmmm... this is so nice," El sighed, leaning against the railing.

"OK, I have a question. Well, actually, it's not so much a question as... more of a general wondering... meant," Mike scratched his head, looking over at El out of the corner of his eye.

"OK," El smiled up at Mike, waiting for him to speak.

"OK. Here goes. For a while now, I've been wanting to, um..." Mike fiddles with his fingers, trying to get his words out.

"Ohhh!!!!" El smiled, looking over at something that was beyond Mike's freckled face.

"Yes, yes, that's right..." Mike flushed a pink colour

"Oh, look at the little cat!" She cooed, and small black and white kitten is standing on its four paws behind Mike.

Mike looked extremely confused, "what?" he asked when the kitten suddenly pounces and jumps onto his shoulders. "Ow!"

As Mike and El are trying to get the kitten off Mike's shoulder, Max, Dustin and Will are singing along to a song that's playing on their record player.

 _"I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation and the only explanation I can find is the wonder's I've ever since..."_ They sang. 

* * *

**Commercial Break**

* * *

It had taken a short amount of time for the three stood inside the apartment that Mike had been attacked by an abandoned kitten. All 5 were sat back in the apartment, Will held the small kitten in his hands smiling down at it, El was sat in the spare chair next to Will watching as Max started treating to the scratches on Mike's back with Dustin holding the menorah over the wounds so that Max could see.

"This is just Bactine. It won't hurt," Max tells Mike, and when the Bactine is applied to Mike's wound he flinches in sudden pain - making El cringe at the pain written on Mike's face.

"Sorry, that was wax," Dustin apologies, pulling the menorah away from Mike's back.

"Oh, poor little Tooty is scared to death. We should find his owner," Will said, looking down at the kitten's scared little face and tapping its nose softly.

"Why don't we just put 'poor little Tooty' out in the hall?" Mike suggests, glaring at the kitten before him, cringing when more of the bactine hit his shoulders.

El looked at him, shocked and slightly hurt, "During a blackout? He'd get trampled on!" El playfully glared at Mike before she started to pet the kitten.

"Yeah?" Mike said, nonchalantly, shrugged his shoulders - earning a hard glare from El and a drop of wax on his shoulder from Dustin.

* * *

As Max was taking care of Mike's scratched shoulder, Lucas looked over at Eve Goodyear.

"You know, on second thought, gum would be perfection," Lucas had changed his mind, and as Eve hands him a stick of gum - with a strange look plastered on her face.

 _"'Gum would be perfection?' 'Gum would be perfection.' Could have said 'gum would be nice,' or 'I'll have a stick,' but no, no, no, no. For me, gum is **perfection**. I loathe myself,"_ Lucas said to himself, as he stuffed the piece of gum into his mouth.

* * *

Will and El walk around the girls' apartment building, the tiny kitten cradled in Will's arms, softly mewing. El's heart melted even more - she knew her and Will were going to have to give up the little kitten to its owner by the end of the list.

Will stops dead in front of the first door they came to. "Oh no, the Mendels, they hate all living things, right?" Will explained, El hadn't been living in Max's apartment for all that long, she didn't know that many of her neighbours.

They walked to its next-door neighbour, the girls' downstairs neighbour. Old man Campbell, or simply just Mr Campbell. "Oh," she sighed, before knocking on the door. As expected, lonely, Mr Campbell answers. "Hi. We just found this cat and we're looking for the owner,"

Mr Campbell shifted slightly and looked at the kitten in Will's arms. "Er, yeah, it's mine,"

Will cradles the struggling kitten in his arms, holding it back from the kitten leaping out of his arms. "He seems to hate you. Are you sure?" He asks.

"Yeah, it's my cat. Give me my cat," Mr Campbell lied, calling the poor kitten in Will's arms an 'it' and holding his hand out for the kitten.

"Wait a minute. What's his name?" Will asks, looking up at Mr Campbell, still holding the struggling kitten in his arms.

"Ehhhh... B-Buttons," Mr Campbellonce again, lied, what he didn't know, however, is that Will and El already knew the name of the kitten.

El raises a questioning eyebrow at Mr Campbell, as her and Will share a look. "Bob Buttons?" El asked.

Mr Campbell nodded. "Mmm. Bob Buttons. Here, Bob Buttons," the kitten leapt out of Will's arms and scampered away from the three stood in the hallway.

Will gave a heavy glare towards the older man before him. "Oooh! You are a bad man!" He exclaimed, pulling El along with him, following where the kitten had run off to.

As Will and El run off to go catch the tiny kitten, Mr Campbell called to them, "you owe me a cat,"

* * *

Will and El had decided that it would be easier if they split up and looked at either end of the apartment block. El taking the lower half, and Will the higher half.

As El spoke, she cooed and made silly noises with her mouth, hoping that it would attract the kitten. "Here, kitty-kitty. Here kitty-kitty. Where did you go, little kitty-kitty-kitty? Here kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty..." She suddenly walked into a pair of muscular legs, as she stood up, El comes face-to-face (face-to-chest) with a gorgeous Italian hunk holding the said kitten.

As soon as something extremely posh and flawless dropped out in Italian fell from his lips, El was in awe. "Wow," she exhaled, as soon as this happened - the candle that was helping her see blew out.

* * *

As El was meeting the Italian hunk, Mike, Max and Dustin were sat around the coffee table playing the classic cardboard game, _Monopoly_. The paper money, tokens and cards were scattered between the three of them.

With it being Mike's turn to roll, the dice clutched tightly in his hand, he begged, "Lucky sixes..."

Mike watched the dice bounce across the coffee table, the curly-haired girl walked into her shared with her best friend Max, the Italian hunk - Pablo - on her arm. "Everybody, this is Pablo. Pablo, I want you to meet my friends. This is Max," El points to her roommate.

As soon as Max had laid her eyes on Pablo, she was instantly smitten by the Italian hunk. "Hi!" she exclaimed.

El then hesitantly looked at her 'curly-haired twin' (which is what the group call her and Dustin due to their similar hair types). "And Dustin..."

Dustin just gave a wave in Pablo's direction, and the rolled the dice, as it was his turn. "Hi!" Max exclaimed, again, in a way of trying to get Pablo's attention.

El then looked over at the dark haired, dark eyed man who had captured her heart as a young boy. She never did pursue a relationship with her best friend's (and now roommate's) brother - as she thought that he didn't feel the same way that she did. "And Mike,"

"Hi!" Max exclaimed for a third time, waving like a madman on caffeine and drugs. As Pablo spoke of something fluently in his native language, Max and El were almost melted puddles of goo on the floor because they swooned so much.

"He doesn't speak much English," El spoke of proudly, smiling as Pablo walked away from her side and to the game set up around the coffee table.

" _Monopoly!_ " He exclaimed, pointing to the cardboard outline.

El's eyes sparkled with delight. "Look at that!" She almost clapped with happiness as Max's eyes also sparkled with delight.

Mike felt a very large bubble of jealousy rise in his throat as El continued to look so happy at Pablo, why couldn't she look at him the way she is currently looking at Pablo? "So, um... where did Pablo come from?" Mike asks, giving the dice a roll for Max, as she was currently preoccupied.

"Oh... Italy, I think," El shrugged her shoulders at Mike, with a clueless look on her face. But then continued to smile anyway.

Mike rolled his eyes behind El's back (mainly because she actually wasn't  even currently looking in his direction). "No, I mean tonight, in this building. Suddenly. Into our lives," Mike tried not to sound like a jealous human, but it was really hard when the woman you love is giving all her love and affection to another man. ESPECIALLY a foreign man, with an ITALIAN accent.

El giggled, Mike had rarely heard her giggle - he'd heard her laugh many times (more times than he could count on both hands combined), but he'd never heard her giggle. "Well, the cat... the cat turned out to be Pablo's cat!" El smiled brightly at Pablo, who was clueless and just smiled back politely.

Mike let out what he sees as an extremely fake laugh." That, that is funny..." he then turned to look at Dustin and whisper to him, "... and El keeps touching him," which she had been doing, and every time El touched a part of Pablo's shoulder, it sent heartbreak through Mike's heart.

The door opens and in walks, the tiny Will Byers, exhausted, slightly sweaty but tired. The door slams behind him, and walking to where the group is sitting/standing. "Alright. I looked all over the building and I couldn't find the kitty anywhere," Will said, whipping a bead of sweat away from his hairline.

El's face contorts into one of cringe, she'd forgotten to tell Will about the kitten (as well as Pablo) that she had found. "Oh, I found him. He was Pablo's cat," El explains.

"Ah! Well! There you go! Last to know again! And I'm guessing... since nobody told me... this is Pablo," Will said, before pointing to the Italian hunk who had rather quickly caught Will's eye.

"Ah, Pablo, this is Will," El introduced, pointing to Will - her step-brother smiling when Pablo looked at him, slightly becoming like Max, smitten. Pablo speaks something in Italian, something in a romantic fashion as he is apparently attracted to Will. 

"You betcha!" Will smiles, having taken Italian rather than Spanish in high school.

* * *

As two girls and one guy were falling for the Italian hunk, Lucas was still trying to score with Eve Goodyear in the locked ATM vestibule. They had ended up being sat near the table, more like underneath it. With Lucas chewing the gum that Eve had given to him.

 _"Ah, let's see. What's next? Blow a bubble. A bubble's good. It's got a... boyish charm, it's impish. Here we go,"_ Lucas waited until Eve was looking over at him, which honestly didn't take all that long, and then he starts to blow a bubble. However, instead of him blowing a bubble, he accidentally spits it out and it then gets stuck on the wall...

 _"Nice going, imp. OK, it's OK. All I need to do is reach over and put it in my mouth,"_ he continues to talk to himself as he slyly grabs the gum off the wall and then smoothly sticks it back in his mouth.

 _"Good save! We're back on track, and I'm..."_ Lucas stops talking to himself as a grimace floods his face.  _"..chewing someone else's gum. **This is not my gum.** Oh my God! Oh my God! And now you're choking," _he then started choking on the foreign piece of gum in his mouth.

Eve looked over at him when she started to hear Lucas choking on the piece of gum sat in his mouth (well, his throat...) "Are you alright?" she asked, raising an eyebrow to him. Lucas made the 'OK' sign with his hands, however, it was extremely clear to Eve that he was obviously couldn't breathe.

"My God, you're choking!" Eve gasps, walking behind Lucas and performed the Heimlich manoeuvre on him, and the gum soon flies out from his mouth. "Better?" She asks, looking over at him.

Lucas is almost keeled over, gasping for his breath. "Yes... thank you. That was... that was..." Lucas struggled for the words.

"Perfection?" Eve offers, giggling slightly but smiling none the less.

* * *

With Lucas and Eve finally having a proper conversation, El and Pablo are sat in the window of Max and El's apartment, with Mike and Dustin, were sitting on the sofa watching over at the pair disgustedly. Pablo speaks of something that Will will later tell her of comparing El's eyes to the stars in the sky.

Mike rolled his eyes and started to mock Pablo, "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah... blah blaaaaaah..." Dustin smiled and swatted at Mike. They both laughed slightly at Mike's stupid impression of the Italian currently in the apartment.

El walked away from Pablo, laughing at what he had said to her. Mike looks over at her, sadness, upset and jealousy was written on his pale face.

"Wha- What did he say that was so funny?" Mike asked, perking up slightly when El came into his line of view. Her bouncing curls, button-like nose and her big, round, sparkling eyes.

El simply shrugged and simply said, "I have absolutely no idea," This was something El always did, she found a sweet/cute guy and have not a single clue as to what they were nattering on about. 

"That's... that's classic," Mike sighed, putting on a fake smile towards her, thanking every God on planet Earth that she couldn't tell the difference between his fake smile and his true real smile. 

El turns to look at Max and Will, her face flustered a light shade of peach pink, "Oh my God, you guys, what am I doing? What am I doing? This is so un-me," El sat in the one loan chair by the television set. 

"If you want I'll do it," Max offers, making El look at her with a raised eyebrow - like she was refusing to allow Max to do said request. Mike raised an eyebrow to Dustin, a silent question over what he should do. 

"I know, I just want to bite his bottom lip," Will says, making El look over at him, her eyebrow still raised. They'd never heard something like this come from Will - it's almost like a foreign experience. "But I won't," he said, before turning to look at the ground. 

El's head falls onto the back of the chair as the peach pink flushed darker. "God, the first time he smiled at me... those three seconds were more exciting than three weeks in Bermuda with Harry," El said, bringing up the ex-fianceé that she left at the altar on her wedding day. 

Will's interest was peaked because of Bermuda and all the images he'd seen in travel catalogues. "You know, did you ride mopeds? 'Cause I've heard..." Will trailed off when they were all looking at him like he had three heads (which honestly wouldn't surprise them).  "Oh, I see... it's not about that right now. OK," Once again, Will looked at the ground.

"Y'know, and I know it's totally superficial and we have absolutely nothing in common, and we don't even speak the same language but Goooooooddddddd," El sighed, not noticing that Mike had stood up and wandered onto the balcony where Pablo is overlooking the city.

* * *

With El discussing Pablo with Max and Will, Mike had gone over to where Pablo stands by the window, to sort things out.

"Pablo. Hi," Mike said, making the Italian look at the taller man of the group. Mike had always been the taller one - even if it was just by half an inch in middle school, but now in his late 20s, he towers over them all at almost 6-foot 2.

"Ross!" Pablo exclaims, the Italian accent flowing through him, making the giant's eyes roll underneath his eyelids when he blinked. Mike suddenly noticed that Pablo was standing on the loan step, making him slightly taller than Mike, so what he does to conquer it... he gets on the same step to look down at him.

Mike fiddled with his fingers as he spoke to the current foreign man of the group. "Listen. Um, listen. Something you should... know... um, El and I... we're kind of a thing," Mike lied, he wanted El all to himself.

"Thing?" Pablo asked, raising an eyebrow towards Mike, curious as to what Mike was going on about.

Mike nodded about what Pablo repeated. "Thing, yes. Thing," 

"Ah, you... have the sex?" Pablo asked, his English not even perfect, but Mike could slightly understand what Pablo was saying.

"No, no, no, Technically the...sex is not... being had, but that's... see, that's not the point. See, um, the point is that... El and I should be, er, together. You know, and if you get in the... um..." Mike rambled, tripping repeated over his words, looking for the right thing to say.

"Bed?" Pablo offers another word to add to the extremely long ramble Mike was giving Pablo.

Still fiddling with his fingers, Mike answered, "No, no, no, that's not where I was going. Er, if you get in the...  **way** , of us becoming a thing, then I would be, well, very sad,"

"Oh!" Pablo exclaimed, understanding (finally) what Mike was trying to say.

Mike's eyes sparkled, seeing that Pablo now understood what Mike was now nattering on about. "Yeah!  _Se vice?_ "

"Si," Pablo spoke in his fluent Italian accent that makes all the girls (and sometimes even the guys) melt into a puddle of goo because the accent is so flawless.

Mike smiled slightly, "So you do know a little English," Mike spoke before Pablo took a shake slightly of his head.

"Poco... a leetle," his Italian accent making 'little' sound slightly like 'beetle'.

Mike nodded slightly before opening his mouth to ask a question. "Do you know the word  _crapweasel?_ "

"No," Pablo simply stated making Mike laugh, thankful that Pablo doesn't know the insult,"

"That's funny, because, you know, you are a huge crapweasel!" Mike exclaimed, laughing before (strangely) the pair shared a hug, even though Mike was extremely jealous of Pablo possibly being with El.

* * *

Simultaneously, Lucas and Eve Goodyear were sitting underneath the ATM counter, there were two pens hanging on their chains in front of them. Eve was showing him how to swing the pen around his head.

Eve rolled her eyes at the dark-skinned boy couldn't get the pen to go around his head for what felt like the millionth time. "Lucas, we've been here for an hour doing this! Now watch, it's easy," Eve said, despite having rolled her eyes at him, she smiled either way.

"OK," Lucas nodded, waiting for Eve too (once again) show off with her extraordinary talent.

"Ready?" Eve asks, and when he nods, she swings the pen on its chain around her head in a circle, like she's been doing this for years (most likely).

Lucas then tries for the million and one time to get the pen and its chain around his head, only it hits him in the head.

"No you've got to whip it," Eve said, and the only song that was running through his head was  _Whip It_ from 1980 by Devo. Lucas then swings the pen extremely hard, but it snaps back and almost hits him in the head again.

* * *

Hours later, the gang is sat around the coffee table in Max and El's apartment. The single lone candle that El had lit earlier in the evening was the only candle left lit, as the rest had died out.

Will had noticed that the last candle was still shining. "Oh, look look look. 10, 9, 8, 7..." Will counted down as the light continued to shine. 

> Timelapse

"... negative 46, negative 47, negative 48..." Will had been counting for what felt like a thousand years, the light was blown out by someone in the room (most likely Dustin for jokes) and the room goes completely dark.

"Thank you," Mike says gratefully smiling at where he can slightly see the outline of Will Byers.

"Thanks," Will says in reply, looking up towards the direction of Mike and Dustin.

Mike let a shiver run down the back of his spine. "Kinda... spooky without any lights," 

Dustin smirked and started to laugh maniacally, making another shiver run down Mike's spine. "Bwah-hah-hah," As soon as Dustin did this, everyone else started to mimic him.

Mike smiled before coming up with his own evil laugh. "OK, guys, guys? I have the definitive one. Mwwwooooo-hah-hah," Mike started his laugh before the lights came back on. El and Pablo stood at the other end of the room making out. Which caused Mike to clutch his heart - sinking heavily into his stomach in broken pieces. Heartbreak written in his eyes.

"Oh... oh... oh..." Mike repeats quietly, El nor Pablo taking any notice of Mike's heartbreak and upset.

Dustin put a hand on Mike's shoulder and explained as to what Dustin had missed to Max and Will earlier that evening. "Hey, Mike. This probably isn't the best time bring it up, but you have to throw a party for Max,"

* * *

**Closing Credits**

* * *

A final scene between Eve Goodyear and Lucas Sinclair are held, as the power in the ATM vestibule came back on.

Eve stood with her designer Chanel bag held firmly order her shoulder. "Well, this has been fun," she smiled at Lucas.

"Yes. Yes, thanks for letting me use your phone... and for saving my life," Lucas gratefully spoke, nodding towards Eve who stood by the glass door.

"Well, goodbye Lucas. I had a great blackout," Eve said softly, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "See ya," she leaves the vestibule. Lucas is left on his own, with his face pressed against the glass door, stroking the window lovingly. After a short while, Lucas pulls his face away from the window and looks up at the security camera.

"Hi, um, I'm account number 7143457. And, uh, I don't know if you got any of that, but I would really like a copy of the tape," Lucas says to the camera.

* * *

**END**


	2. Season 02, Episode 03: "The One Where Campbell Dies"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Mr Campbell dies and leaves all his belongings to Max and El, Lucas worries he will die alone just like him. Meanwhile, Will and Mike argue over evolution.

**Season 2, Episode 3: "The One Where Campbell Dies"**

_(The One Where Heckles Dies)_

* * *

In Max and El's apartment, everyone was playing poker around the kitchen table. Well, everyone except Lucas who was out on another date with his current girlfriend Julie.

Lucas walked in, slightly looking upset, but himself none the less. "Hey," he declared, shutting the door behind him, slamming it slightly.

"Hey!" The gang replied, continuing on with their poker game, El glaring over at Mike (who was currently winning out of the pair of them).

Max looked over at Lucas with a slightly heavy heart, knowing that he's just been out with his girlfriend. "So how was Julie?" She asked, smiling tightly.

"I broke up with her," Lucas shrugged, and looked over Will's shoulder to see what cards he had in his hand - compared to the cards sat on the table.

Mike rolled his eyes and looked over at his best friend, knowing the reason as to why Lucas had dumped his girlfriend. "Don't tell me, because of the big nostril thing?" He asked.

"They were huge. When she sneezed, bats flew out of them!" Lucas exclaimed, taking a bottle of water out of the fridge, which made El roll her eyes at Lucas (like Mike had just 5 seconds ago).

El crossed her arms and stared at Lucas with a raised eyebrow. "Come on, they were not that huge," she stated.

"I'm tellin' you, she leaned back; I could see her brain," Lucas explained with a slight exaggeration, making El roll her eyes for the millionth time in half an hour.

Not only did El roll her eyes at Lucas's comment, as did Max. "How many perfectly fine women are you gonna reject over the most superficial insignificant things?" Max questions, silently hoping that he wasn't thinking that about her.

Before Lucas could reply, Dustin interrupted the conversation. "Hold it, hold it. I gotta side with Lucas on this one. When I first moved to the city, I went out a couple of times with this girl, really hot, great kisser, but she had the biggest Adam's apple. It made me nuts,"

El, Max and Will looked at each other with confused faces. Lucas simply looked over at Mike and asked, "You or me?"

Mike nods as if he's taking one for the team. "I got it. Uh, Dustin, women don't have Adam's apples..." Mike tries to explain, without Dustin bursting into tears - as he usually does over tiny little things.

Dustin then looks around at the group, observing person he has come to know, and taken on as one of his best friends. "You guys are messing with me, right?" He asks.

They all roll their eyes and decided that the greater good, it was easier not to damage Dustin's spirit more. "Yeah," they all said in unison.

Dustin laughs, gratefulness sitting warmly in his heart due to his best friends. "That was a good one. For a second there, I was like 'whoa',"

* * *

**Opening Credits**

* * *

After a couple more games of poker, and with it determined that El was the surprise winner, pride shining in Mike's heart for her. Max was packing away the cards and El putting the water bottles in the bin, Will had grabbed two beers from the fridge for Mike and Lucas.

"You name one woman that you broke up with for a real reason," Will demanded, handing the beers to his two best friends.

Lucas thought for a while, thinking about the girls he has dated before he came to what he thinks is an obvious and real reason. "Melissa Cassidy,"

Mike shook his head at the dark-skinned man, before speaking up, "'Cause she doesn't hate Yanni' is not a real reason," Mike defends Lucas's ex, for whom she could not defend herself.

As soon as Mike spoke, there was a knock on the girls' apartment door, making Max sigh heavily as to who she thinks it is.

Once the door is open, she knew her suspicions were right. Old man Campbell, or as they actually refer to him as, "Hello, Mr Campbell,"

He always went up to the girls' apartment, to 'complain' about 'the noise' that they were making. "You're doing it again," he complained, standing at the girls' apartment door, his arms crossed in frustration.

"We're not doing anything," Max argued, as El came to her side, knowing that Max may need some support.

Mr Campbell's arms were still crossed as he put across his 'point of view'. "You're stomping. It's disturbing my birds," he 'explained'.

"You don't have birds," El explained, raising a questioning eyebrow at Mr Campbell. If he had birds, wouldn't they have heard them by now? Over a year of living with Max.

"I could have birds," he says, his usual thing when complaining. 'You're doing it again... You're disturbing... I could have...' it really got on the girls’ wicks.

Before El could jump into the conversation again, Max stopped her. "Okay, Mr Campbell, we'll try to keep it down," Max promised, making Mr Campbell nod.

"Thank you. I'm going to re-join my dinner party," Mr Campbell replied, before walking away, making El roll her eyes - as if she rolled her eyes so much that if the wind changed they'd stick in that place.

"All right, bye-bye," sarcasm was dripping from her lips as Max closed the door behind him. El rolled her eyes and walked back to the boys.

Lucas had been and came to the only girl who he came to a real reason. "Okay, McKenzie! McKenzie. You gotta give me McKenzie. That wasn't about being picky," Lucas spoke, pointing to Mike.

Mike nods, remembering how bad McKenzie was. "We'll give you McKenzie," Mike says, El nods in agreement.

Will stands behind El, who had sat down on the sofa. "I miss McKenzie," Will admitted, making El smiled before Will started to imitate McKenzie. " _Hello, Lucas Sinclair,_ "

El giggled at what Will was doing and decided to 'jump on the bandwagon'. " _Oh, my, God!_ " El also imitated.

Dustin then also imitated McKenzie, only one thing comes to mind when it came to McKenzie and Lucas. " _Oh, Lucas, now, now, that's it. There, faster!_ " When Dustin turned to look at the gang, they stared at him as to say 'what the hell?’ Mr Campbell bangs on his ceiling, which is the floor of the girl's apartment.

"Stop with the broom, we're not making noise!" Max exclaims, as she then stops in protest, Campbell - in reply bangs again his ceiling. As an answer to this, Max and El stomp on the floor. Once again, Mr Campbell bangs on his ceiling, which was answered by the entire gang banging on the floor. However, this time, there is no response.

"We won. We won!" El exclaimed, dancing happily with Max as the gang cheered happily, unaware of what happened to Mr Campbell downstairs...

* * *

Mr Campbell, a lonely man who had lived in the same apartment for the past 15+ years, finally left his apartment, wrapped up in a sheet on a gurney... The group of friends and Mr Jones watching the gurney being wheeled out.

"Mr Campbell," Max said, feeling sorry for the man who had been extremely grumpy towards her and her friends.

El had sadness written in her eyes, Mike trying to find the courage to wrap his arm around her and comfort her. "How did this happen?" She asked Mr Jones.

"He musta been sweeping. They found a broom in his hand," As Mr Jones looked from one to another when he moved his eyes away; the gang cringed as they knew as to why Mr Campbell had a broom in his hand.

"That's terrible," Max said, sadly smiling at Mr Jones.

Mr Jones nodded. "I know. I was sweeping yesterday. It coulda been me," Mr Jones said, shaking his head sadly, thinking back to what he did yesterday.

"Sure, you coulda. You never know," Mike said, covering his sarcasm very well with his facial expressions.

"You never known," Mr Jones repeated.

* * *

The next day, in the evening, in Max and El's apartment, everyone is sat around the apartment eating pizza for dinner.

Will looked up from his ham and pineapple slice, "OK, it's very faint, but I can still sense him in the building," The gang had been talking about their memories of Mr Campbell (which weren't all that many as he complained 99% of the time). "GO INTO THE LIGHT, MR CAMPBELL!" Will screamed.

"Ok, Will," Lucas said, reaching over to pat his brown bowl cut of hair. Will hadn't properly changed his hair in years, only switching it up when he went to an event.

Will smiled slightly. "I'm sorry, but sometimes they need help," As Will said this, everyone else groaned in annoyance. "That's fine. Go ahead and scoff. You know there're a lot of things that I don't believe in, but that doesn't mean they're not true," Will said, shrugging, taking another bite of his pizza. 

"Such as?" Dustin asks, looking from his meat-lover supreme pizza slice to his ham and pineapple loving, long-time best friend Will Byers.

"Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?" Will explains, shrugging his shoulders, taking another slice of his pizza.

Mike looked up from the classic American pizza that is Pepperoni pizza. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don't, uh, you don't believe in evolution?" Mike asked, raising an eyebrow at his first ever friend.

All Will does is shake his head. "Nah, not really,"

"You don't believe in evolution?" The boys had been firm believers in evolution since middle school, and Mike was JUST finding out that Will had been lying to him the whole time...

"I don't know, it's just, you know... monkeys, Darwin, you know, it's a, it's a nice story, I just think it's a little too easy," Will explains, he remembers being sat at the same desk every other day in the science classroom hearing Mr Clarke ramble on about evolution and gravity.

Mike blinks repeatedly, trying to remember if he and Will were in the same classroom, "too easy? Too... The process of every living thing on this planet evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms, is-is too easy?" Mike asks, feeling himself (rather quickly) go insane.

"Yeah, I just don't buy it," Will shrugged, taking a rather large bite out of his pizza, everyone else in the room thinking that he is crazy for not believing in evolution - when he himself is actually a part of it.

Mike put his slice of pizza down in his box and brushed the flour off his hands. "Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Will. Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we breathe, like gravity," Mike explains, clearly remembering Will being sat in the desk next to him when Mr Clarke rambled on about evolution.

"OK, don't get me started on gravity," Will said, with Mike now looking at him like the youngest member of the group had three heads - which actually would explain a lot.

"You, uh, you don't believe in gravity?" Mike asks, also remembering Will still being sat at the same desk next to him when gravity was being discussed.

Will tried to think of a way to explain this to Mike without offending him. Mike has always had a soft, and easy to break, heart - especially when it's one of his friends. "Well, it's not so much that you know, like I don't believe in it, you know, it's just... I don't know, lately, I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down as I am being pushed," This made Mike's feel that when they were teens in Hawkins, that Will believed in gravity in the 1980s. As soon as this was said, there was a loud and solid knock at the door, making El jump at the sudden noise.

"Uh-oh. It's Isaac Newton, and he's pissed," Lucas said, making El giggle around her simple ham and bacon pizza slice. When Max opened the door, stood in front of her was Mr Jones and another older man.

"There she is. And the over there, that's the other one," Mr Jones said, the way he was speaking made El extremely worried like she was just about to get arrested - her adoptive father wouldn't be happy. "This is Mr Carter Carson, Mr Campbell's attorney. He'd like to talk to you," Mr Jones continued, walking to the girl's small kitchen table and pushing their pizza boxes out of the way to put the pieces of paper on. El's box almost fell to the floor; Mike was able to catch it - having reflexes like a cat.

"What can we do for you?" Max asked as El was handed her box by Mike, smiling softly at him in thanks for him catching her dinner.

Mr Carson spoke this time instead of Mr Jones speaking. "Alright, kids. Here's the deal. According to my client's will, he wants to leave all his earthly possessions to 'The noisy girls in the apartment above mine'," El blinked repeatedly, thinking the exact same thing as what Max is thinking.

"Well, what about his family?" Max asks, looking at the pieces of paper (that almost made El lose her dinner) to see what Mr Campbell had left to his family.

"He didn't have any," Mr Carson said simply, El and Max looked at each other with heartbreak written in their eyes, probably to Mr Campbell 'the noisy girls upstairs' were the only 'family' he had. El didn't have the heart to ask how much was left to them, as she looked over at Mike with tears in her eyes.

"Let's talk signing," Mr Jones interrupted the girls thought stream, by wanting to get rid of the paperwork for Mr Campbell. "You are noisy girl number one," He says to Max. "You are noisy girl number two," he then says to El.

Max smiles at El, a sparkle of a tear in her eye. "I can't believe that this whole time we thought he hated us. I mean, isn't it amazing how much you can touch someone's life, without even knowing it?" Max asked, wrapping an arm around El.

Not knowing what Mr Campbell has hoard...

* * *

The girls had been handed the keys to Mr Campbell's apartment, and now everyone was looking at what Mr Campbell had given to Max and El to deal with.

"Would you look at this dump? He hated us. This is his final revenge!" Max exclaimed, raising her hands and sighing heavily, and trying to figure out where to start.

El rolled her eyes at the amount of junk that Mr Campbell has hoarded. "Have you ever seen so much crap?" She asked, picking up different bits thinking if anyone she knew would want any of Mr Campbell's precious belongings.

"Actually, I think this apartment sullies the good name of crap," Lucas says, picking up a box of letters of bills etc.

Dustin walks to stand in front of a magnifying glass that is on a stand and looks at Max and El. "Check this out. Can I have this?" He asks, making the girls raise their eyebrows at him.

* * *

With Dustin trying to get the girls to agree to let him have the magnifying glass on its stand, Mike is still arguing with Will over him not believing in evolution.

"How can you not believe in evolution?" Mike asked, holding a box with Mr Campbell's 'knick-knacks' in a brown box.

Will just shrugs. "Just don't. Look at this funky shirt!" Will exclaims, holding up a t-shirt similar to his stepfather's from the 1960's.

"Wills, I have studied evolution my entire adult life, you know that. OK, I can tell you, we have collected fossils from all over the world that actually shows the evolution of different species, OK? You can literally see them evolving through time," Mike explained, trying to get through to his long-time best friend, the first friend he ever made at school (apart from his sister...) 

"Really? Can you actually see it?" Will asks, not remembering Mr Clarke ever talking about fossils throughout Middle School nor High School - if he did, he must have been ill from school.

Mike nods. "You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over," Mike explains, remembering Will being ill when Mr Clarke rambled about fossils, however, Mike can't remember if it was on the tests from that year and on.

"See, I didn't know that," Will says. This now explains why Will can't remember Mr Clarke's millionth ramble.

"Well, there you go," Mike smiled, flicking through the 'knick-knacks' not finding anything that he likes before he picks up another box.

"Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there, and why?" Will jokes, folding the t-shirt and putting it on the table by the door.

Lucas walked over holding a leather-bound brown book. "Hey, look at this. 'My Big Book of Grievances.'," Lucas stands by a table, the boys gathering around him.

Dustin takes a flick through and sees something. "Hey, there's me! April 17th Excessive noise. Southern guy comes home with a date," Mike cringes slightly. "Hey Lucas, look, you're in here too," He points to the next one.

"April 18th, excessive noise. Southern guy's gay roommate comes home with dry-cleaning... Well, that's excellent," Lucas said, rolling his eyes heavily, Mike lets out a snigger of a laugh - as well as Dustin.

El walks out from what they assume used to be Mr Campbell's bedroom. "Max, Max, look at this lamp!" In her hand, she holds a lamp which has been made out of seashells - similar to the one she had before she moved to New York, with her adoptive parents. "Is this tacky or what? We have to have this," El smiles brightly at Max.

"Ellie, I think we have enough regular lamps," Max said, turning her face so the lamp is no longer in her eyesight.

El raised an eyebrow at Max, she was extremely confused. "What? Come on, it's not like I'm asking for this girlie clock or anything, which, by the way, I also think is very cool," In El's other hand, she holds an alarm clock that had a girl in a bikini and pasties stood behind it.

Max simply shrugs in response. "It doesn't go with any of my stuff,"

El is still confused with Max's statement. "Well, what about my stuff?" She asks.

"You don't have any stuff," Max, once again, simply shrugs. That's when El understood what Max was saying.

"You still think of it as your apartment, don't you?" El says, dropping her hands, feeling heartbroken that she's always thought of it as hers and Max's apartment, but Max has thought of it as Max's apartment and hers alone...

"No," Max tries to defend herself, but El easily sees through her 'so-called' best friend.

"Yes, you do. You think of it as your apartment, and I'm just somebody who rents a room!" El exclaims, tears welling up in her eyes, pulling Mike away from his conversation with Will. Mike hated seeing El upset, especially when she moved to Hawkins with her family in middle school.

Max tries to come up with an excuse for the problem that she has caused. "Mmmmm." She says, coming up with nothing of an excuse.

El fakes a smile as a tear rolls down her cheek, she was going to do exactly what her adoptive father, Chief Jim Hopper of the Hawkins Police Department taught her -  _'show off what you got, baby'._ "Ok, while you 'mmm' on it for a while, I'm gonna find a place for my new lamp," she wiped away the tear that had rolled down her face, set down the alarm clock. Before she left Mr Campbell's apartment, Mike silently asked her if she was OK, she gave him an unsure look, and left.

Mike put El's unhappy face at the back of his mind. "OK, Wills," Mike said, walking back to Will's side, holding two little toys on his thumbs. "See how I'm making these little toys move? Opposable thumbs. Without evolution, how do you explain opposable thumbs?" Mike asked, holding the two toys to Will's face.

"Maybe the overlords needed them to steer their spacecrafts," Will joked - that's the way that Will has always been, not comedy gold like Dustin, but making jokes every now and then.

Mike looked at Will and saw his face, which was blank (Will’s way of pulling off a joke) “Please tell me you’re joking,” Mike begs, looking at Will with a raised eyebrow, wondering if Will was actually was trying to pull a joke or not.

Will rolled his eyes and continued to look at Mike, still making his joke. “Look, can’t we just say that you believe in something, and I don’t,” Will continues to joke, making Mike still look at him extremely confused.

“No, no, Wills, we can’t, ok, because-” Mike starts to explain before he was cut off by Will (for what was the millionth time since he met Will in Kindergarten).

"What is this obsessive need you have to make everyone agree with you?" Will asks, and before Mike can cut in, Will continues. "No, what's that all about? I think, I think maybe it's time you put Mike under the microscope," Will says as Lucas walks towards the pair with Dustin trailing behind him.

Mike looks over at Lucas and asks, "Is there blood coming out of my ears?"

Lucas laughs and before he can throw back a sarcastic comment, Dustin came over with a dark red book in his hands. "Check it out, check it out. Campbell's high school yearbook," Dustin says, standing in the middle of the group.

"Wow, he looks so normal," Lucas exclaims, seeing the black and white photograph of a young Mr Campbell.

Will looks at the photograph, "he's even kind of cute," Will admits, smiling slightly.

Dustin saw a quote written in the calligraphy that his mother used to do when he was little. " _'Campbell, you crack me up in science class. You're the funniest kid in school,'_  " Dustin says out loud, everyone's eye widening, this wasn't the Campbell they were used to.

“Funniest? Campbell?” Lucas asked, taking the yearbook from Dustin and looking at it, himself. Reading over everything that Campbell had done in high school before he became the grumpy old man that the group had come to know.

“That’s what it says,” Dustin says, as the yearbook slipped from his hands, and he looked down at Lucas as the dark-skinned boy’s eyes start to widen, dramatically.

“Wow, Campbell was voted class clown, and so was I. Remember?” Lucas states and they 4 boys were taken back to their time in high school - when Lucas won his small trophy for becoming the class clown (he was better than Dustin). Suddenly, there was a banging coming from the girl’s apartment upstairs, most likely El clobbering around. They’ve always said she’s like the Hulk, with her heavy feet. Everybody looks up at the upstairs apartment. “He was right. Would you listen to that?” Lucas says standing up.

Will nods. “I’d call that excessive.” He comments.

“Whoa!” Lucas exclaims.

Dustin looks over at his best friend. “What?” He asks.

"Campbell played clarinet in band, and mom made me play the clarinet. And he was in the scale modeller’s club, and I was, well, there was no club, but I sure thought they were cool.” Lucas says again, once again taking the boys back to high school and the time where Mrs Sinclair made her only son play the clarinet and when Lucas had his phase of when he was obsessed with scale models.

Dustin shrugged. “So, you were both dorks. Big deal,” He joked, nudging Lucas’s shoulder and picking up a box of photographs.

Lucas also shrugged. “I just think it’s weird, you know?” Lucas stated before El started walking again upstairs. The loud clobbering from her delicate high heels Mike had gotten her for Christmas echoing off the hardwood floors. “Campbell and me, Campbell, and me, me and Campbell...” Lucas repeats before he storms over to where the broom was laying against the wall by the door and banging it against the ceiling. “Would you knock it off?” Lucas exclaims, as the rest of the boys look at him and realise who he is turning into... then, so does Lucas. “Bah!” He jumps in his place and throws the broom down onto the ground hard.

* * *

**Commercial Break**

* * *

The next morning, Lucas was still sat on Mr Campbell’s couch in one of his robes. When Dustin walked in, fresh clothes and his hair dry. Dustin was shocked when he saw his long-time best friend still sat on the couch, exactly where he left Lucas last night.

“Have you been here all night?” Dustin asks, walking over to sit at Lucas’ side.

Lucas was holding the box of pictures that Dustin had in his hands not 12 hours ago. “Look at this. Pictures of all the women that Campbell went out with. Look what he wrote on them,” as Lucas pulls out each picture he mentions their name and what Campbell had said about them, and hands them to Dustin. “Emma, too tall. Olivia, big gums. Too loud, too smart, makes noise when she eats. This is, this is me. This is what I do. I’m gonna end up alone, just like he did,” Lucas comments and Dustin threw the pictures back into the box.

"Lucas, Campbell was a nut case,” Dustin backed, rolling his eyes at his long-time best friend.

"Our trains are on the same track, OK?” Lucas said, making Dustin rolled his eyes yet again. “Yeah, sure. I’m coming up 30 years behind him, but the stops are all the same. Bitter Town. Aloneville. Hermit Junction,” Lucas listed off, laying back in Campbell’s old couch.

Dustin rested his hands on Lucas’s shoulders. “All right, you know what we gotta do? We gotta get you outta here. C’mon, I’ll buy you breakfast, let’s go,” Dustin offered, pulling Lucas off the couch.

Lucas stands there, with Dustin's hands on his shoulders. "What if I never find someone? Or worse, what if I've found her, but I dumped her because she pronounced it 'supposably'?" Lucas asks, which he then followed up with him pushing Dustin's hands off his shoulders and started pacing the length of Mr Campbell's 'living room'.

Dustin sighs and puts his head in his hand."Lucas, come on, you're gonna find somebody," But the only thing echoing in the back of mind:  _'Max! Max! Max!'_

"How do you know that? How?" Lucas exclaimed, a vein in his brain almost looking like it was going to pop.

Dustin shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just tryin' to help you out," He simply stated.

"You'll see, you guys are all gonna go off and get married, and I'm gonna end up alone. Will you promise me something?" Lucas starts to ramble before cutting himself off with a question, which Dustin nodded at, the word  _'promise'_ was sacred in the group of 6. "When you're married, will you invite me over for holidays?"

Dustin sighed, thinking over his future. "Well, I don't know. I don't know what we're gonna be doin'. I mean, what if we're at her folks' place?" Dustin asks, raising an eyebrow at his long-time best friend.

"Yeah, I understand," Lucas sighed.

"You can come over and watch the Super Bowl. Every year, alright?" Dustin offered, promising the watch the greatest football season in American sport with his best friend.

Lucas bounced on Mr Campbell's hardwood floors. "You know what? I'm not gonna end up like this. I'll see you, man," Lucas throws Mr Campbell's robe onto the couch and runs out of the old man's old apartment.

Leaving Dustin in the quiet apartment, with his own thoughts to keep him company. "Supposably. Supposably. Did they go to the zoo? Supposably," Dustin repeated to himself, before also leaving Mr Campbell's apartment.

* * *

When Lucas made it to his and Dustin’s apartment, he snatched the phone off its cradle and dialled a phone number he’s come to memories over the years.

"Hi, it’s me,” He says into the phone, to the person on the other end.

"Oh, my, god,” McKenzie said, Lucas’s ex-girlfriend laid on her couch, in what could be seen as an awkward position for what is currently happening to her body.

* * *

In Espresso Express, Lucas had just told the group that he had called McKenzie, Lucas’s on-again-off-again ex-girlfriend (or current girlfriend depending if Lucas had gone ‘grovelling back’. Mike and El looked at each other in shock, and even though Mike had a girlfriend (and El was heartbroken over this), Mike was still hopelessly in love with El. Max, Dustin and Will were looking at Lucas with confusion and shock written across their faces.

“McKenzie? You called, McKenzie?” Will asked, trying to wrap his head around what Lucas had just said.

Lucas nods. “Yes, McKenzie. Why is that so difficult to comprehend?” Lucas sighs, leaning back in the chair he currently occupies.

“You remember McKenzie, right?” Mike asked, also trying to wrap his head around what Lucas had said. The McKenzie he remembers was loud and overbearing.

Lucas rolls his eyes at his best friend’s shocked faces. “Yes. She was smart, she was pretty and she honestly cared about me. McKenzie is my last chance to have somebody,” He stated as the doors opened.

In walked McKenzie, waddling slowly down the steps, with a helping hand from a passing older gentleman. She was about 5-6 months pregnant, which was around the time the group had last seen her. Was the baby she was carrying, Lucas’s? “Helloo!!” She exclaimed.

"Oh... my... God!” Lucas said, standing up to look at McKenzie’s full figure.

Dustin was never one for social queues, and simply just said what he was thinking. “Geez, look how fat she got,” Dustin said to Lucas, earning harsh glares from his friends and a harsh slap to the shoulder by Lucas.

“Hey, it’s everybody!” McKenzie exclaimed, waddling over to what she would call her best friends when the group would simply call her Lucas's on-again-off-again ex-girlfriend from high school

Lucas looks at his ex-girlfriend, who was glowing in the mist of her pregnancy. “McKenzie, you’re…” Lucas trailed off, walking to stand in front of her.

“Yes, I am,” McKenzie proudly said, cradling the bump.

Lucas raised a shaky eyebrow. “Is it…” He trailed off, not knowing if the baby she was carrying, was his.

“Is it yours? Ha! You wish, Lucas Sinclair,” McKenzie said, Lucas slightly sighed with relief, he wasn’t exactly ready to have a baby. “You are looking at a married lady now,” McKenzie showed off the huge, sparkling, diamond ring.

“Congratulations,” Lucas smiled, this was his last chance.

McKenzie patted Lucas’s cheek, and smiled softly, she was always going to have feelings for Lucas – he was her first boyfriend. “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry,” McKenzie said.

“You couldn’t have told me over the phone?” Lucas asks.

McKenzie lets out a high pitched laugh that sounds like she had something stuck up her nose. “And what? Missed the expression on your face? McKenzie likes her fun,” She said, speaking in the third person, as Mike and El let out silent chuckles.

* * *

 

El was sat in her’s and Max’s apartment, reading her old and tattered book (given to her by her father for Christmas – the book he had read to Sarah, who would have been El’s adoptive sister). With Max pacing around their apartment, as Will read an MTV magazine.

“Hey, Ellie,” this got El’s attention. “You know what we haven’t played in a while?” She asks, standing by El’s disastrous shell lamp from Mr Campbell’s apartment.

El raised an eyebrow. “What?” She replied.

“Hide the Lamp,” Max says like she was a game show host in their childhood in the 80s. She did jazz hands as she announced her idea.

El rolled her eyes at one of her best friends. “Max, let it go,”

“Did you know I was allergic to shellfish?” Max asks, crossing her arms, her elbow coming within an inch of knocking over El’s lamp. Soon Mike walked into the girls’ apartment, with a black briefcase in his hand.

Will looked over the couch and saw the first friend he ever made in his school life. “Uh-oh. It’s Scary Scientist Man,” Will joked, going back to the MTV magazine, and reading about a rumour to do with the broken up 80s band,  _Frankie Goes to Hollywood_ , one of El’s favourite bands.

Mike had slammed the door behind him and dumped his briefcase onto the table in the girls’ kitchen. “OK, Will, this is it. In this briefcase, I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old,” Mike said, as he starts to unlock his briefcase.

“OK, look, before you even start, I’m not denying Evolution, OK, I’m just saying that it’s one of the possibilities,” Will said, flicking over another page saving the  _Frankie Goes to Hollywood_ article for El.

“It’s the only possibility, Will,” Mike stated.

Will sighed and turned around in his seat. “OK, Mike, can you just open your mind like this much, OK?” Will holds his thumb and forefinger close together, but far enough apart to see a slither between them. “Wasn’t there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and like this, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can’t admit that there’s a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?” Will questions, which made Max and El intrigued.

Mike blinked repeatedly. “There might be… a teeny… tiny… possibly,” He admitted.

“I can’t believe you caved,” Will said, dropping the magazine into his lap.

“What?” Mike asked, his eyebrows crinkling.

Will threw the magazine onto the coffee table and walked over to Mike as he spoke. “You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn’t agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how are you going to into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself?” Will asks, making Mike close his suitcase, face like a kicked puppy (making El’s heart melt that little bit more) as he walked out of the girls’ apartment hugging his briefcase to himself. “Oh! That was fun. So, who’s hungry?” Will was extremely proud of himself for being able to disassemble Mike’s belief in Evolution, before turning to his only two girl-friend and proposed dinner.

Max and El nodded, both feeling hungry, and Max not having enough food in the fridge for the three of them. “I am. Let me just get my coat,” El took her tattered book with her to grab the leather jacket that was once her sister’s. As Max puts on her coat, she puts her arm into its sleeve, she hits El’s shell lamp, and it falls to the floor – shattered.

El came running into the living room and saw her precious seashell lamp broken on the floor. “What happened?! What happened?!” El asks.

“OK, alright. It was an accident, I swear, alright. I was putting on my jacket, and the thing, and the lamp, and it broke,” Max explained, as El pushed her way past Max crouching in front of her broken lamp.

El rolled her eyes at Max’s comment. “Oh, please, Max. You’re always hated my lamp, and then, all of a sudden, it’s just magically broken?” El questioned, picking up the pieces in her hands.

“Will, tell her!” Max begs, turning around to face her best guy friend.

“OK, I didn’t see it, because I was putting on my jacket, but I, uh, want to believe you,” Will says, picking up his wallet which must have fallen out of his pocket when he was reading the MTV magazine. Lucas walks in, slamming the door behind him, and leaning against the table, where El had dumped her broken lamp onto.

“Hey, Lucas,” El smiles slightly at the dark-skinned young man. “Max just broke my seashell lamp,” El continues, with Max raising her hands in frustration.

Lucas put on a smile for El, the simple girl needing it at this moment in time. “Neat. I’m gonna die alone,” Lucas puts simply falling into a chair near where he was stood.

El blinks a couple of times before saying, “OK, you win,” Max walks over after hearing what Lucas said about his future.

“Lucas, you’re not gonna die alone,” Max said, standing over El.

“McKenzie was my safety net, OK?” Lucas said, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair he occupied. “And, now, I have to get a snake,” Lucas says, making the girls’ and Will raise their eyebrows at what he said.

“Uh huh. Why is that?” Will asked, lilting his head to the side in question.

Lucas sighed before he started rambling. “If I’m gonna be an old, lonely man, I’m gonna need a thing, you know, a hook, like that guy in the subway who eats his own face. So I figure I’ll be Crazy Man with a snake, y’know. Crazy Snake Man. And I’ll get more snakes, call them my babies, kids will walk past my place, they will run.  _‘Run away from Crazy Snake Man,’_ they’ll shout!” Lucas exclaimed, pushing the water bottle handed to him by El between his hands on the table.

“You have got to get over this. You’re not gonna end up alone,” Max says, putting her hand on Lucas’s (the pair of them feeling a shock of electricity travel up their arms).

“Of course I am. I reject anyone who’s crazy enough to actually go out with me, and then I bitch about the fact that there aren’t any great women out there,” Lucas stated, making Will and El look at each other (both of them wanting to push Max into the arms of Lucas, and vice versa).

El sighs, and puts her hand over Lucas and Max’s. “Lucas, you have just described virtually every man that we have ever gone out with,” El said, with a serious and truthful smile plastered on her face, with Will and Max nodding behind her – the same serious and truthful smile on their faces.

“You are not a freak. You’re a guy,” Max says, Will giggling slightly but earned a glare from the man with the dilemmas.

“She’s right. She’s right. You are no different than the rest of them,” El shrugged, raising part of her lip on its own.

Max thinks for a second, blinking repeated as she does so. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Yes, he is. You are totally different,” Max voices.

“In a bad way?” Lucas asks

“No, honey, in a wonderful way. You know what you want now. Most guys don’t even have a clue. You are ready to take risks, you are ready to be vulnerable, and intimate with someone,” Max says, voicing what she was thinking. Will and El nodding along with what Max had said.

El smiled at Lucas. “Yeah. You’re not gonna end up alone,” El said, making Lucas start to smile.

Will also smiled at Lucas. “Lucas, you called McKenzie! That’s how much you wanted to be with someone!” Will exclaimed, putting his hand on Lucas’s shoulder.

The three said a chorus of:  _“You made it!”_ from Max,  _“You’re there!”_ from Will and  _“You are ready to make a commitment!”_ from El, making Lucas jump in his seat.

“Whoa! Don’t know about that,” Lucas said, standing up and walking out of the girls’ apartment.

* * *

In Mr Campbell’s apartment, everything is almost gone, save for a few bits and bats. Max walks over to El with the girlie clock in her hands. El rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“What you got there? Something else that’s not yours that you can break?” El asks, Mike smiling over at her, proud that she was standing up to his sister and her roommate.

“No. Um, I know you like this, and I want you to have it. I think it’ll look good in our apartment,” Max said, holding out the clock to El, making the smaller girl smile happily.

“Thank you,” El says, as the clock sounds it alarm as it hits o’clock, the clock’s alarm is that of whistling and with the girl shaking her hips. El sets the clock down, not really wanting it now that she has seen it when it’s like this.

Dustin picked up El’s clock, adopting it into his apartment that he shares with Lucas. “That’s fine,” Max says, then El shook her head with Max realising that El didn’t want it anymore.

“Hey. Well, you will all be pleased to know that I have a date tomorrow night. This woman, Ally, from work, she’s great. She’s pretty. She’s smart. And, uh, I’ve been holding off asking her out in the past, because she had an unusually large head. But, I’m not gonna let that stuff hang me up anymore. Look at me. I’m growing,” Lucas said, making El feel kind of like a mama bird, Lucas had to spread his wings before he realised he liked Max.

“Hey, uh, you can’t recycle yearbooks, can you?” Dustin asks, walking to where the group is standing around, holding Mr Campbell’s yearbook.

Which Lucas takes out of his hand. “I’ll take that,” Luca said, opening the book.

"You want his yearbook?” Dustin asks as El and Mike look over Lucas’s shoulder at Mr Campbell’s old yearbook.

"Yeah, yeah. Some people said some nice things about him. I think somebody should have it,” Lucas said, El smiled at Lucas and patted his shoulder and picked up a brown, cardboard box.

Max looks around Mr Campbell’s apartment, taking it in one last time before it’s sold to their next neighbours. “Oh, gosh, this is so weird. I mean, his whole life was in this apartment, and now it's gone. You know, I think it would be nice if we just took a few moments, for Mr Campbell. I mean, he was kind of a pain, he was, but he was a person,” Max ends up stood behind Mr Campbell’s magnifying glass, and slowly – one by one – they started laughing. Max then realises what they are laughing about. “You're all going to hell,” she said, taking the box from El and walking out.

“It’s really not that big!” El exclaimed, chasing after her roommate, patting Will on the shoulder as she did. After the girls’ had left Mr Campbell’s apartment, Dustin puts the alarm clock from Mr Campbell on top of his magnifying glass and starts to push it out of the old man’s old apartment.

"Takin’ that with you, huh?” Lucas asks Dustin, walking slowly after Mike and Dustin, yearbook in his hand.

"Oh yeah,” Dustin replied, leaving the apartment.

Mike stands at the doorway, turning around to look at his best friend. “You comin’?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

Lucas nods. “Yeah, just a second,” Mike nods in reply and leaves Lucas alone in Mr Campbell’s apartment. He picks up the broom he’d thrown down a couple of days ago, leans it up against the wall where he’d originally found it. “Good-bye, Mr Campbell,” Lucas said, then turned off the lights. “We’ll try to keep it down,” Lucas says, shutting the door behind him, with a soft click.

* * *

**Ending Credits**

* * *

In a restaurant, Lucas is on his candle-light date with Ally, who has been rambling on about something for the love of god, Lucas couldn't recall.

"Oh, my major was totally useless. I mean, how often do you look in the classifieds and see  _'Philosopher wanted'_?" Ally rambled, taking a sip of her wine glass.

"Sure," Lucas said, taking a big sip from his glass.  _'My god, that's a big head! It didn't look this big in the office. Maybe it's the lighting. My head must look like a golf ball at work. Alright, don't get hung up on it, quick, quick, list five things you like about her: Nice smile, good dresser... Big head, big head, big head!'_ Lucas said to himself, plastering a smile on his face as Ally started to talk. Again.

* * *

**End**


	3. Season 02, Episode 07: "The One Where Mike Finds Out"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drunken El calls Mike and reveals her feelings for him on his answering machine. Meanwhile, Max keeps busy being Lucas's personal trainer and Will constantly wonders why his current boyfriend won't sleep with him.

**Season 2, Episode 7: "The One Where Mike Finds Out"**

**(The One Where Ross Finds Out)**

* * *

Everybody was sat in Max and El's apartment, around the couches, waiting for Lucas to come back from a party he had gotten invited to.

"Okay, what is it about me?" Lucas asked, slamming the girl's apartment door behind him. It was officially the girl's apartment after Max had finally realised that El was in the other bedroom. To stay. "Do I not look fun enough? Is there something... repellent... about me?" Lucas continues, stamping his feet around and slamming things behind him.

El let a small smile creep out, before erasing it when Lucas collapsed between the girls. "So, how was the party?" She asks, picking at the bites of chicken Max had recently fried (which she was currently sharing with Mike).

"Well, it couldn't have been worse." Lucas comments, his head rolling his head along the headrest of the couch. "A woman literally passed  **through**  me. Okay, so what is it, am I hideously unattractive?" Lucas asked, crossing his arms as El handed him a piece of fried chicken.

Will looked up from his plate of fried chicken, and spoke up. "No, you are not, you are very attractive," Lucas took it as a compliment, as Will liked men. "You know what, I go through the exact same thing. Every time I put on a little weight, I start questioning everything," Will continues, making Lucas look down at his stomach.

"Woah, woah, I've put on a little weight?" Lucas asks, making El look over at him and shake her head, pushing away those thoughts.

"No, not weight... y'know, more like insulation," Will comments, making Lucas feel a little bit better about himself.

Max looks over at one of her best friends in the whole world. "Lucas, I'm unemployed and in dire need of a project. Ya wanna work out? I can remake you," Max offers, and El hopes that he will take it, because not only will it make the pair closer to getting together, but it will give her crazy roommate something to do.

"Oh, you know, I would, but that might get in the way of my lying around time," Lucas states, making El let out a sigh of a laugh and an elbow in her side from Mike.

"Please," Max begs.

There was a chorus of "C'mon," "Let her," and "Yeah," that was heard around the group, mainly from El as she was getting tired of her best friend being in a slump.

Lucas rolls his eyes before sighing heavily. "Alright, okay, alright. But if we put on spandex and my boobs are bigger than yours, I'm goin' home," Lucas says, making Max smile - seeing as she had finally got through to Lucas.

"Your boobs are fine," Will joked. "Look, I should never have said anything. Come here. Come here," Will stands up and wraps his arms around Lucas. He started pulling a joke on Lucas, by keeping his hands apart on Lucas's back. "Oh, can't make... hands... meet," The rest of the group laugh as Lucas lets Will go. 

* * *

**Opening Credits**

* * *

Later on, Lucas (having gotten changed into spandex) walks out of the apartment he shares with Dustin, jogging in place, to where Max is stood waiting with a look of amusement on her face.

Lucas smiles. "Okay, let's do it," Max continues to look at him funny. "What?" He asks.

"Nothing, just never seen you in little stretchy pants before," Max comments, laughing slightly.

Lucas rolled his eyes at Max. "And we're changing," he jogs back into his apartment.

* * *

While Lucas and Max are jogging around Brooklyn, Lucas starts to lag behind Max. He then gets sick of lagging behind her, and jumps into a cab and takes off.

Leaving Max behind.

* * *

Soon after Max realises that she had been ditched by Lucas, she quickly heads to the boys' apartment. Max is holding down Lucas's feet while Lucas is doing sit-ups.

"C'mon, give me five more. Five more," Max says, the most amount of sit-ups that Lucas has currently done barely touches 10.

"No," Lucas says, so weakly, he was exhausted.

"Five more and I'll flash you," Max proposes, making Lucas begin to do his sit-ups.

With each sit-up he did, he got closer to Max hopefully flashing him. "One... two... two and a half," Lucas collapsed onto the floor and looked up at Max. "Okay, just show me one of them," Lucas asked, and Max sighed heavily.

* * *

During El's shift at Espresso Express, Lucas and Dustin are sitting on the couch with big cups of coffee.

Lucas slowly lifted the cup to his mouth. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," and then as he sets the cup back down. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," Dustin then intercepted and set the cup back down on the coffee table. "She's insane, the woman is insane," Lucas says. "It's after work, it's at work. She's got me doing butt clenches at my desk. And now, they won't bring me my mail anymore," Lucas didn't want to say anything harsh against Max, but at this moment in time. He had to.

When Will walks in, El looks up from pouring the coffee. She wasn't the best at her job (who was) but she wasn't the worst at it either. El smiles at her brother. "Hey Wills, how'd it go with Matt last night?" She asks, setting the pot of coffee down.

A blush fluttered over Will's cheeks. "Oh, um, it was nice. Took him to a romantic restaurant, ordered champagne, nice," Will said, walking over to the couch.

"The guy still won't put out, huh?" Dustin asks, handing Lucas his cup of coffee.

"Nope. Zilch, nothin', uh-uh," Will says, crossing his arms as El went to go get Will his usual order.

The group sighed in disappointment for Will. "Sorry Wills," they said.

Will sighed and sat in what would usually be Mike's chair. "Look, I, y'know, I don't mind taking it slow, I like him a lot, y'know he’s really interesting and he’s really sweet and why won’t he give it up?” Will asks, taking the cup El handed to him.

Dustin thinks for a second. “Maybe he, uhh... drives his car on the other side of the road, if ya know what I mean,” Dustin voices, making everyone’s eyebrows crinkled, confused.

"No, whadd'ya mean? He’s not British,” Will said, who is as confused as everyone else over the thing that Dustin had just said.

"Maybe he’s... straight,” Dustin says, making El slightly cringe, not wanting Will to get his heart broken. Again.

Will shakes his head. “Oohh, um, no I don’t think that’s the problem. ‘Cause we went, um, dancing the other night and the way he held me so close, and the way he was looking into my eyes, I just like... definitely felt something,” Will says, as El raises an eyebrow at her brother, as does Dustin and Lucas.

“Yeah, but how much can you tell from a look?” El asks, looking down at Will.

Will shook his head, “No, I felt it on my hip,” Will said, making El slightly pull a face, as Max walks in looking for Lucas.

“Yo, Sinclair. Racquetball in 15 minutes,” Max says to Lucas, slapping his shoulder.

“Dustin, be a pal. Lift up my hand and smack her with it,” Lucas said, looking at Dustin, being serious, but Dustin just rolled his eyes.

Will smiled between would could be seen to an outsider as a bickering couple. Seeing Mike kissing his current girlfriend Poppy, outside. “Ooh, oh, El, don’t look,” Will says, and El did what Will told her not to.

“What?” When El looks, nothing goes over her face – like she doesn’t care. But in her heart and her stomach, she heartbroken and upset. “C’mon you guys, I don’t care, I have a date tonight,” El said, turning away from the kissing couple and to her friends, but even though she was looking at her friends. She could still see Mike and his girlfriend kissing out of the corner of her eye.

“Woah, woah, woah, you have a date?” Dustin asked, looking over his shoulder at his waitress best friend.

El nodded. “Yeah, Max’s settin’ me up,” El smiled, now that Mike had stopped kissing his girlfriend.

“But, uh, uh, what about, uh, Mike and uh…” Dustin couldn’t get a straight sentence out of his mouth, the ship that he’d put Mike and El on, was sinking, and fast. Like the Titanic…

“Oh what, my whole insane jealousy thing?” El asks. “Well, y’know, as much fun as that was, I’ve decided to opt for sanity,” El said, being handed the refilled coffee pot from Lily – who was also a waitress, and one of El’s friends.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re really okay with all this?” He asks, only wanting the best for one of his friends.

El smiles and stands as tall as the Statue of Liberty. “Oh yeah. C’mon, I’m movin’ on. He can press her up against that window as much as he wants. For all I care, he can throw her through the damn thing,” El jokes, giggling as Mike walks into the café with his ‘precious’ girlfriend Poppy on his arm.

“Hi, guys,” Mike said, smiling at his friends, so happily.

“Hey,” The group said, not happy about Mike’s current choice in a girlfriend.

Mike looked over at his sister, as he remembered the conversation that he was only recently having with Poppy. “Oh, Max, I figured I’d come by tomorrow morning and pick up Fluffy’s old cat toy. Okay?” Mike says, smiling at his sister.

Max smirks. “Only if you say his full name,” Max crosses her arms, after being handed a brownie by Lily on her way past. With a nod to Lily in thanks, Max looked back at her brother.

Mike sighed reluctantly. “Can I come over tomorrow and pick up Fluffy Meowington’s cat toy?” Mike asked, looking from sighing heavily into the ground to look at the other Wheeler sibling.

“Alright,” Max nods, taking a large bite of her brownie. Cooking perfectly, with white chocolate chips in and everything!

“You’re getting a cat?” Dustin asks the oldest Wheeler.

Mike wraps his arm around Poppy. “Uh, actually, we’re getting a cat,” Mike smiles. Poppy had a smug looking grin on her face like she knew how El felt about Mike (or how Mike had originally felt about El back in the day).

“Together?” El asks.

“Uh huh,” Mike nods.

“Both of you?” El asks, again

“Yep,” Mike nods, again.

“Together,” El said, nodding slowly, her heartbreaking further in her chest.

Poppy smiled, to what Mike it seemed so brightly, but to the rest of his friends, she was rubbing their noses in it. “Yeah, we figure it’ll live with Mike half the time, and with me half the time,” she said.

“Ohh, well, it’s that just lovely. That’s something the two of you will be able to enjoy for a really, really, really, really long time,” El said, and every time she said _‘really’_ her tattered heart slipping further towards her stomach.

“Hopefully,” Mike smiled.

“Well,” El sighed, before looking at the watch Hopper had gotten her for her birthday months ago. “Woah, look at that! I gotta go, I gotta date. With a man. Um, Okay, you guys have a really, uh, have a really good night and you two have a, uh, really good cat,” El nods at her friends before turning around and carrying her tray out as she leaves, before she came back in. “Okay, we’re not supposed to take these when we leave,” She hands it to Lily and leaves again.

* * *

Later on in the evening, El is in a posh restaurant with her date, set up by Max, with a man called Mitchell. Mitchell kind of looked like a replica of Mike, which always brought El’s mind back to the man currently invading her heart. The man who was allergic to cats…

“I don’t know if Max told you but this is the first date I’ve gone on since my divorce so, if I seem a little nervous, I am,” Mitchell said, his strong Irish accent coming through, which would have sent any undistracted women to her knees.

“How long do cats live?” El asked, twisting the empty wine glass between her fingers.

Mitchell was extremely confused over the question El had popped out of nowhere. “I’m sorry?” He asked.

“Cats, how long do they live figuring you don’t… y’know, throw ‘em under a bus or something?” She asks as a waiter walks over with a bottle of wine.

Mitchell shrugs before thinking for a second. “Um, maybe, 15, 16 years,” He took an estimate, making El sigh heavily as she thought about face-planting the table. But decided against it, as she was in a posh restaurant.

“That’s just great,” El snatched up her champagne with a swipe and started drinking like it was water and she was a starving woman in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Mitchell blinks a couple of times. “Um, cheers,” he said, meekly, with his glass held out to her, in a cheers motion.

“Oh, right, clink,” El said, quickly tapping the end of her glass against his, before downing it like she was a teenager again meeting alcohol for the first time at a high school party.

Confused and scared, Mitchell spoke up over a small amount of silence. Save for El’s drinking. “Max told you I was cuter than this, didn’t she?” He guessed, considering El’s reaction…

“Oh, no, Mitchell, it’s not you,” El promises, feeling the effects of the alcohol already taking effect. “I’m sorry, it’s just, it’s this thing. It’s probably not as bad as it sounds, but this friend of mine is, is getting a cat with his girlfriend,” She explains, raising her hand for the waiter to come back and refill her glass.

He blinks a few times, trying to think of how it could possibly be bad. “Oh, that does sound… Ahh,” He figures out what El means.

“I mean, he just starting going out with her!” She exclaims as the waiter refills it, and El downs it once again.

Mitchell doesn’t exactly know what to think at this moment in time. “Is this guy, uhh, an old boyfriend?” He asks.

El giggles, the bubbles from the wine taking effect. “Ah, hah-hah-hah-ho, yeah, he wishes. Oh, I'm sorry, look at me. Okay, Mitchell, let's talk about you,” She says, making Mitchell smile.

Mitchell leans against the table, wanting to hear El better in the room full of chatter. “Alright,” he says.

“Okay, Okay. So, you ever get a pet with a girlfriend?” El asks, making Mitchell raise a scary, frightened and confused eyebrow.

* * *

With El on her disastrous date, Lucas and Max had gone to play racquetball, and Mike and his girlfriend gone to look at rescue cats at her ‘request’ (see: forced), Will and Dustin were left in Espresso Express on the couch.

“So, I figured it out,” the smallest and youngest man said to the tallest and oldest of the pair.

“What?” Dustin asks, setting his cup down now that he has finished his millionth cookie.

“Why Matt doesn’t want to sleep with me,” On the inside, Dustin pulled a face – he didn’t exactly want to hear his best friend’s ‘habits’ to put it into a word. “It’s ‘cause I’m not sexy enough,” Will said, making Dustin raise an eyebrow in confusement.

Dustin looked at Will like he had grown three heads (which would be more of an explanation to Will’s recent statement). “Will, that’s crazy. When I first met you, you know what I said to Mike? I said, _‘Crap clothing taste, great hair,’_ ,” Dustin said, remembering the day he’d first met Will in elementary school. Over comic books and nutter butter – which Will later realised he was allergic to.

“Really?” Dustin nodded. “That’s so sweet. I mean, I’m officially offended but, sweet,” Will remembers that his mom had picked out the clothes that Will had worn the day he met Dustin, so it does hold an explanation to why Dustin though Will had horrible taste in clothes…

“Wills, look. If you want to know what the deal is, you’re gonna have to ask him,” Dustin said, only wanting to be honest with one of his oldest friends.

Sighing, Will said. “You’re right, you’re right. Ah, you are so yumm,” Will said, jokingly, an inside joke between the two – a reminder from when they both realised that they had a common interest in nutter butters.

As Will and Dustin share a hug, neither notice that Max and Lucas had gone jogging and had arrived at the café. Max pushes Lucas to the side, a playful smirk on her face. The pushing and slapping got harder with each push and slap until Max had pushed him to the floor. Once stood up, with a serious expression on his face, Lucas chases Max along the street and away from the café.

* * *

After 2 bottles of champagne, El had poured the last of it into her glass. To an outsider, she was drunk and unknown to what she was saying to Mitchell.

“I mean, it’s a cat, y’know, it’s a **cat**. Why can’t they get one of those bugs, y’know, one of those fruit flies, those things that live for like a day or something?” Even though she had already unconsciously said the name, she couldn’t remember what the name of the bug was called. “What’re they call, what’re they called, what’re they called?” She repeated to herself, in a way for her to remember the name.

Mitchell blinked repeatedly because El had already said the name. “Fruit flies?” He offers.

“Yes! Thank you!” She exclaims, starting to lean over the empty table. The waiter walks over to their table.

Their waiter stood looking between the pair. “So, would you like any dessert?” The water offers.

Mitchell shakes his head rapidly. “No! No dessert, just a check, please,” Mitchell asked and the waiter nodded to get their check.

“Oh, you’re not having fun, are you?” El sighs.

Mitchell shakes his head. “No, no, I am, but only because for the last hour and a half I’ve been playing the movie _Diner_ in my head…” he scratches the back of his head, scared that El was going to rip his head off or something.

“Oh, look at me, look at me. Oh, I’m on a date with a really great guy, all I can think about is Mike and his cat and his… Poppy. I just want to get over him. Gosh, why can’t I do that?” El sighs, resting her head in her soft palms.

Mitchell reached over and grabbed one of El’s hands, grabbing her attention. “Oy. Look, I’ve been through a divorce, trust me, you’re gonna be fine. You just can’t see it now, because you haven’t had any closure,” he said, making El grin brightly.

“Yeah! Closure. That’s what it is, that’s what I need. God, you’re brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?” El exclaims before thinking. “How do I get that?” She asks, looking at her date for the night.

Mitchell thought for a second. “Well, you know, there’s no one way really, it’s just, you know, whatever it takes so that you can finally say to him, _‘I’m over you,’_ ,” He said, making El nod at what he was saying.

“Closure, that’s what it is. Closure,” She said, looking around the restaurant, as her eyes fall on a guy who was taking on his large phone. “Hello, excuse me. Excuse me, Hel- woo,” she said, and when she got out of her chair, she almost fell to the floor – an indication of how much she has had to drink.

“Hang on,” the guy said into the phone, before turning around to look at a drunken Jane ‘El’ Hopper.

“Hello, excuse me,” El drunkenly smiles at the man.

“What?” He asks.

El sighs and puts her hand on the back of his chair. “Hi, I’m sorry; I need to borrow your phone for just one minute,” El asks.

“I’m talkin’!” He exclaims, his thick New York accent slipping through.

El nods. “I can see that. I – just one phone call, I’ll be very quick, I’ll even pay for it myself,” She offers, and the man still seems to be reluctant to hand his phone over to El. “Okay, you’re bein’ a little bit weird about your phone,” El said, crossing her arms.

The man sighs. “Alright, fine,” he says to El. The turns to the phone and speaks softly, “I’ll call you back,” He hangs up and hands the phone over to the drunk young woman.

“Thank you,” she says and sloppily walks back to the table. “Okay,” she mumbled as she dialled. She looks over at Mitchell. “Machine. Just waiting for the beep,” she said.

“Good,” Mitchell said, tipping the remainder of his wine down his throat.

After El had heard the beep, El started to speak. “Mike, hi, it’s El. I’m just calling to say that um, everything's fine and I'm really happy for you and your cat who, by the way, I think you should name Mitchell. And, you know, ya see there I'm thinking of names so obviously, I am over you. I am over you and that, my friend, is what they call closure,” El hung up on Mike’s voicemail machine and throws the phone into the ice bucket, not realising it was somebody else’s…

* * *

 

**Commercial Break**

* * *

After El’s disastrous date with Mitchell last night, El had gone to bed hungover. However, Lucas was in no state for exercise as he answered the door in his robe.

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” Lucas said, as he opened the door on Max. “No. Max, it's Sunday morning. I'm not running on a Sunday,” Lucas complained, leaning against the door.

“Why not?” Max asked.

Lucas sighed and looked at the floor, before looking back at Max. “Because it’s Sunday. It’s God’s day,” Anyone who knew Lucas, knew that the only time he went to church was when he went back to Hawkins to see his family.

“Okay, if you say stop, then we stop,” Max says and Lucas sighs heavily.

“Okay, stop,” Lucas says.

Max giggles not believing what Lucas was saying. “No, c’mon, we can’t stop, c’mon; we’ve got three more pounds to go. I am the energy train and you are on board. Woo-woo, woo-woo, woo-woo,” Max says, jogging on the spot, and Lucas walks out of the apartment – to get the mail – leaving Max on her own. “Woo,” she said, dejectedly.

* * *

Later on in the day, El had woken up hours after the time she would have woken up at, and she is now sat at the kitchen taking an aspirin, no memories of the night before… Mike walks in and sees his old crush, sat at the table.

“Hey, Ellie,” Mike says, smiling at her.

“Ahhhh,” she complained, holding her head.

“Oh,” Mike smiled; standing across from her while he talked to her. “And how was the date?” Mike asked, smirking slightly at her.

El blinked repeatedly, trying to remember something. “Umm, I think there was a restaurant… I know there was wine…” El laughed softly so that it didn’t hurt her banging headache. She looks over at Mike as though she remembered something, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember.

“Wow, well uh, uh, actually, Poppy's downstairs getting a cab, I just need the cat toy, did Max say. . . What? Why, why are you looking at me like that?” Mike asked, raising an eyebrow at the way El was currently looking at him.

El sighed. “I don't know, I, I feel like I had a dream about you last night but I, I don't remember,” She said, rubbing her hand over her face.

Mike nodded. “Okay,” he said, before noticing the remaining cat toy that had been left on the coffee table. “Oh, oh, oh,” he ran over and picked it up.

“Did we speak on the phone last night? Did you call me?” She asks, turning around and looking at Mike who pulled a confused face.

Mike shook his head. “No, I stayed at Poppy's last night,” Mike said.

“Huh,” El said, nodding her head and got out of her chair, to her room, taking her glass of water with her.

Mike realised he’d never checked his messages on his answering machine. “Oh, actually I haven't even been home yet. Do you mind if I check my messages?” He asks, watching El slowly slop into her room.

El nodded. “Oh yeah, go ahead,” El walks into her room and shuts the door. Mike walks over and picks up the phone from the cradle and dials his answering machine to check the messages he’d gotten overnight.

“Ellie, I got a message from you,” Mike shouted to El, and paused to hear the remaining message. “Who’s Mitchell?” Mike asks which makes El walk out of her room, remembering the message she’d left last night…

Her eyes widen dramatically, making her already wide button eyes, widen even bigger. With her heart lodged in her throat. “Oh my God. Oh my God, Mike, no, hang up the phone, give me the phone Mike, give me the phone, give me the phone, give me the…” She exclaims, jumping over the couch and landing on Mike’s back, who stumbles into the kitchen, and finally gets the phone from him. Mike had heard the whole message, and now had an extremely confused look on his face.

“You’re over me?” Mike asks.

El was extremely embarrassed and slowly slipped off Mike’s back. “Ohhhhhhhh God,” She sighed.

“Wha… you’re, uh, you’re, you’re over me?” Mike stuttered, looking over at El who was extremely embarrassed.

“Ohh, ohh,” El held her head in her hands and leaned against the raggedy couch.

Mike blinked repeatedly and looked over at her. “When, when were you... under me? Ellie. El do you, I mean, were you, uh. . . What?” He rambled and stuttered, not knowing what to say to what had been said by a drunken El.

“Ohh, Okay, Okay, Okay, well, basically, lately, I've uh, I've uh, sort of had feelings for you,” El sighed, bowing her head.

“You've had feelings for me?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, what, so? You had feelings for me first,” El argued, pointing at her.

Mike looked slightly offended. “Woah. Huh. You know about my, I mean, you know I had... you know?” Mike asked, confused as to how El had found out.

“Lucas told me,” El sighed.

“Lucas,” Mike sighed. “When did he… when did he… when did he?” Mike asked, crossing his arms.

El looked at down at the floor. “When you were in China,” El explained.

“China,” Mike repeated.

“Meeting Poppy,” El continued.

Mike paced the length of the girls’ kitchen. “Poppy. Poppy. That. Oh God. Poppy, right. Okay, I need to lie down. No, ya know, I'm gonna stand. I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna walk, I'm walkin' and I am standing. Okay so you, uh, and now wha... and now, now, now you're over me?” Mike rambled again, wondering when she realised that she felt that way about him.

“Are you over me?” She asked, and there was a moment of silence as Mike thought if he was over El or not.

He wasn’t.

The bell buzzes, signifying that someone was trying to contact someone in the apartment. Most likely Poppy. “That's, that's Poppy. Po... Poppy, Poppy,” Mike repeated her name multiple times like he was trying not to get her name wrong. Mike then presses the button and speaks into the intercom. “Hi Poppy,” Mike said, sounding so happy, which honestly made El sick.

“Hi, honey! I’ve got a cab waiting,” Poppy’s sickly sweet voice came over the intercom.

“I’ll be right down,” Mike said, extremely perky like he was a cheerleader from high school.

Mike let go of the button, and El looked at Mike, trying to keep the tears at bay. “Wait, so you’re going?” She asked.

“Well, okay, I uh, I have to. I can’t deal with this right now. I mean, I’ve uh, y’know, I’ve got a cab, I’ve got a girlfriend, I’m… I’m gonna go get a cat,” Mike stuttered, walking to the door, El nodded.

“Okay, okay,” She said, looking away from Mike.

Mike sighed and nodded. “Cat,” he left, shutting the door behind him, doubts playing over and over in his head.

* * *

With Mike doubting his relationship with Poppy, Dustin is in his and Lucas’s apartment watching a rabbi playing an electric guitar on the TV. Will walked in with a happy smile on his face.

"Hey, Dustin,” Will exclaimed, shutting the door behind him, not as loudly as Lucas or Dustin would.

"Hey, Wills,” Dustin said, turning back to the TV.

Will realised Dustin is watching some random crap on the TV and decided to ask him. “How come you’re watching a rabbi playing the electric guitar?”

"I can’t find the remote,” Dustin shrugged, and Will walked around Dustin’s chair and Lucas’s abandoned one and turned it off from the TV set itself. “Thank you,” Dustin smiled.

Will remembered what Matt had said to him earlier in the day. “So, Matt asked me to come over for lunch today and I did,” Will said, taking Lucas’s seat.

“And?” Dustin asked, looking at Will.

"And we did,” Will smiled, holding his hand out for a high five.

Dustin high fives Will. “Alright, Wills, way to go!” He exclaimed.

"Yay me!” Will also exclaimed.

"So, so how did it happen?” Dustin asked, a slight shiver running down his spine.

"Well, I finally took your advice and asked him what was going on,” Will smiled.

Dustin nodded and smiled. Happy that Will had taken his advice. “And what did he say?” Dustin asked.

"He said that, um, he understands how sex can be like, a very emotional thing for me and he was just afraid that I was gonna get all, y'know, like, 'ohh, is he gonna call me the next day' and, y'know, 'where is this going' and, ya know, blah-la-la-la-la. So he said he wanted to hold off until he was prepared to be really serious,” Will said, almost falling into a melted puddle of goo.

“Wow,” Dustin said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, so I said, _‘Okay, relax please,’_ y'know, I mean, sex can be just about two people right there at this moment, y'know, it's, if he wants to see me again he can call and if not, that's fine too. So after a looooot of talking. . . I convinced him,” Will smiled.

Dustin thought over what Will had just said to him. “Let me get this straight. He got you to beg to sleep with him, he got you to say he never has to call you again, and he got you thinking this was a great idea?” Dustin asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at him again.

“Um-hum,” Will nods.

"This man is my God,” Dustin says, looking off into the distance like he was in The Office.

* * *

It was closing up time in Espresso Express, and El was the one closing up tonight, with Lily in the back cleaning the cups and plates. Mike walks in, anger written all over his face. El looked up from cleaning a table and jamming to an 80’s song on the radio.

"Hi,” El smiles at Mike, before picking up the cups and walking to the counter.

"I didn’t get a cat,” Mike said, crossing his arms as El walks behind the counter and hands the cups over to Lily’s slippery hands.

El nods and goes to clean another table. “Oh, that’s um, interesting,” She says, cleaning the lone table left, hearing Lily sing to _Duran Duran_.

"No, no it's not interesting. Okay, it's very, very not interesting. In fact, it's actually 100 percent completely opposite of interesting,” Mike argued, watching El busy herself.

El raises her hands, cleaning rag in one and nothing in the other. “Alright, I got it, Mike,” El defended.

"You had no right to tell me you ever had feelings for me!” Mike declared, making El turn around. With hurt written clearly on her face.

“What?” She asks, she’d originally been facing away from Mike, but when he told her she shouldn’t have told, it hurt her so much!

"I was doing great with Poppy before I found out about you,” Mike stated, his arms flopping about all over the place.

El looked offended. “Hey, I was doin’ great before I found out about you. You think it’s easy for me to see you with Poppy?” El asked, her delicate hand resting on her chest.

"Then you should have said something before I met her,” Mike suggested, crossing his arms and then uncrossing them again because he was uncomfortable.

“I didn’t know then!” She exclaimed. “And how come you never said anything to me?” El asked, raising an eyebrow at Mike. Picking on him, almost.

Mike stumbled on find the words for a second. “There was never a good time,” he said.

El almost made a snort of a laugh. “Right, you, you only had a year. We only hung out, every night,” El stated, confused as to why Mike never told her.

"Not, not, not **every night**. You know, and... and it’s not like I didn’t try, El, but things got in the way, y’know?” Mike tries to explain, but El rolled her eyes at Mike’s lame excuse. “Like, like Italian guy or ex-fiancés or, or, or, Italian guys,” Mike repeated himself.

El stood tall in front of Mike and prodded his chest with her finger. “Hey, there was one Italian guy. Okay? And do you have a point?” El asked, taking a box from the counter that they use for the rubbish and picked up the rubbish from the floor

"The point is I... I don’t need this right now, Okay. It, it's too late, I'm with somebody else, I'm happy. This ship has sailed,” Mike said, saying something they’ve heard Lucas and Dustin say multiple times.

El scoffed before flapping her hands about a bit as she spoke. “Yeah, what're you saying, you just sort of put away feelings or whatever the hell it was you felt for me?” She asked, shaking her head, and her curls fly everywhere.

“Hey, I've been doin' it since the ninth grade, I've gotten pretty damn good at it,” Mike pointed, and he was pretty good at hiding it, she didn’t know till he went to China. He’d liked her since the ninth grade...

El rolled her eyes at Mike and threw her hands up in the air. “Alright, fine you go ahead and you do that, alright Mike,” El growled, stomping away from Mike, hearing Lily had stopped singing.

“Fine,” Mike shouted back.

"’Cause I don’t need your stupid ship,” She exclaimed, kicking a broom out of the way.

"Good,” Mike yelled.

"Good,” El yelled back, leaning against the counter, as Mike leaves. Slamming the door behind him. She stands up and opens the door to shout after him. “And ya know what, now I’ve got closure!”

El slams the door and locks it as she walks away to the couch miserable. With her head in her hands, she begins to sob. What El must have said, must have earned a reaction out of Mike (one of upset too) because he walks back and stands outside the door looking at her, just as upset as El. She regroups herself and stands back up to finish cleaning, turns around. And sees Mike. She unconsciously smiles, making Mike smile back. El keeps her eyes locked on Mike’s as she unlocks the door, and then tries to open it.

When she can’t, she starts pulling at the door, with Mike pushing on it from the other side as well. Till he realises something. “Try the bottom one,” he suggests.

She unlocks the bottom lock, standing up, and opening both doors. Mike walks to El, or El walks to Mike – at this moment in time, it doesn’t matter, because he takes her by the face (El’s hands in the crooks of Mike’s arms) and having known each other since 1983, they finally kiss. El’s hands go to his hair and Mike’s remain on her cheeks.

This has been a long time coming.

* * *

**Closing Credits**

* * *

After Mike and El had finally (FINALLY!) kissed, the next morning, Lucas answers the door of his and Dustin’s apartment, once again finding Max. He sighed heavily.

“Max, it's 6:30 in the morning. We're not working out, it's over,” Lucas sighed, crossing his arms looking angry at Max at this time in the morning.

Max shook her head. “No way, with one pound to go, c’mon. We're workin', we're movin', we're in the zone we're groovin',” Max starts to jog on the spot waiting for Lucas.

“Okay, I don't, I don't mind the last pound. Okay, in fact, I kind of like the last pound. Okay, so don't make me do anything that I'll regret,” Lucas sighed, shuffling from one foot to the other.

Max started mocking Lucas. “Ooh, what'cha gonna do, fat boy, huh? What?” She asked, jumping from one foot to the other.

Lucas thought for a second, before sighing again. “Nothing, except tell you, uh, I think it's wonderful how much energy you have,” Lucas said as if he was trying to suck up to Max.

And it worked. “Well, thanks,” She smiled at him. Taking the bait.

“I mean, especially considering how tough it's been for you to find work,” Lucas tilted his head to the side.

“Well, you know,” Max shrugged.

“You know, I mean, you can’t tell your parents you were fired because they’d be disappointed,” Lucas said, making Max stop hopping from foot to foot.

Max looked at the floor, sadness in her eyes. “Uh-huh,” Max sighed.

Lucas reached over and put his hand on Max’s shoulder. “And it’s not as if you have a boyfriend’s shoulder to cry on,” Lucas couldn’t help but feel happy that Max doesn’t have a boyfriend.

“Well no, but um…” she tried to come up with an explanation.

Lucas shrugged. “I mean, if it were me, I think I'd have difficulty just getting out of bed at all,” Lucas stated.

Max also shrugged. “Y'know, I try to stay positive…” She said, before looking at the floor again.

“So, you feel like goin’ for a run?” He asks, and Max pulls a face before sighing.

“Alright,” she said, straightening up.

“Because, you know, you don't have to. If you want, you could just take a nap right here,” Lucas suggested, Max sighing gratefully inside herself.

Max smiles a bit. “Okay. Just for a little while,” she points to his face and starts to walk to the couch, not wanting to take neither Lucas nor Dustin’s bed.

“Okay,” Lucas replied, putting an afghan over Max’s head and proceeds to dance into his room happily.

* * *

**END**


	4. Season 02, Episode 14: "The One with the Prom Video"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang watches Max and El's prom video, which reveals Max's former girth, El's former nose and the way Mike has always felt about. Whilst Dustin gives Lucas a hideous bracelet.
> 
>  
> 
> _Italics is the prom video_

**Season 2, Episode 14: "The One With the Prom Video** "

* * *

In Lucas and Dustin's apartment, Dustin is all alone, playing foosball all by himself when Lucas walks in on his lunch break.

"Hey," Lucas greets, shutting the apartment door behind him.

"Hey. Hold on a second," Dustin holds up his finger and shooter the tiny foosball football into the goal. "Huh?" Dustin asks.

"Nice, nice. Hey, I got somethin' for you," Dustin said, handing Lucas a white envelope.

Lucas raised an eyebrow at Dustin. "What's this?" Lucas asked Dustin, twizzling the envelope between his fingers.

"Eight hundred and twelve bucks," Dustin said, smiling at Lucas.

"Well, I don't know what Big Leon told ya but it's an even thousand if you want me for the whole night. What is this for?" Lucas asks, looking from the money in the palm of his hand.

Dustin rolls his eyes at Lucas. “Well, I’m makin money now and this is payin’ you back for headshots, electric bills, and so many slices of pizza I can’t even count. I love ya, man,” Dustin said, smiling at his long-time best friend.

“Well, thanks, man. Now I can get my pony!” Lucas sarcastically stated, making Dustin – once again – roll his eyes at Lucas’s stupid antics.

Dustin then rummages through a bag that was set on the coffee table. “Hey, this is a little extra somethin’ for uh, ya know, already bein’ there for me,” Dustin hands Lucas a jewellery box.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” Lucas smiles before opening the box and pulling out an incredibly gaudy gold bracelet. “Wow, I, I don’t know what to say…” Lucas trails off looking at the thing in his hand.

Dustin smiles proudly. “Heh, what d’ya say?” He asked, waiting for Lucas’s opinion.

Lucas blinked repeatedly. “I don’t know. It’s a bracelet,” Lucas said, knowing that it would be enough for Dustin.

“Isn’t it? And it’s engraved too, check it out,” Dustin said, flipping the bracelet over to show Lucas the engraved part.

“ _To my best bud,_ ” Lucas reads from the bracelet, before putting it back in its case. “Thanks best bed,” Lucas smiled.

“Put it on,” Dustin encouraged, smiling back at his dark-skinned best friend.

Lucas put a look of shock on his face. “Oh, now?” He asked, putting the jewellery box with the bracelet in it, into his desk drawer. “No, no, I think something this nice should be saved for a special occasion,” Lucas continues, as he sets a chair in front of the drawer.

Dustin rapidly shakes his head. “Oh, no, no, that’s the beauty part, it goes with everything!” Dustin walked over and collected the bracelet from the drawer. “You put this on, you’re good to go,” Dustin then puts the bracelet on Lucas. “Ohh, man, you are so wearin’ that bracelet!” Dustin exclaimed, clapping his hands like El does when she’s really happy.

“I so am,” Lucas said, placing the fake smile back on his face.

Dustin smiled happily at Lucas. “You have any idea what this’ll do for your sex life?” Dustin asks, looking at his best friend.

“Well, it’ll probably slow it down at first but, once I get used to the extra weight, I’ll be back on track,” Lucas jokes, in such a way that Dustin didn’t realise that it was a joke. 

* * *

**OPENING TITLES**

* * *

Meanwhile, Max is in an interview for a job she currently wanting, stood in a kitchen as the interviewer looks over her CV. “Well, this all looks good,” the interviewer said, flicking his eyes over it.

“Great,” Max smiles, sighing a great sigh of relief.

The interviewer looked over the sheet. “And if I want to call for a reference on your last job?” He asks, looking back up at Max.

“Oh, that’s there on the bottom, see the manager, Lucas Sinclair,” Max pointed the bottom, as she was thankful that Lucas agreed to help her get another job.

The interviewer nodded and set the sheet on the table. “Alright, let’s see if you’re as you are on paper. Make me a salad,” he said, sitting properly in his chair.

Max raised a confused eyebrow. “A salad? Really I, I could do something a little more complicated if you like,” Max stated, as she walked behind the counter.

“No, just a salad will be fine,” he replied, watching Max nod with a look of confusion on her face.

“You got it,” she forced a smile and picked up a variety of vegetables before her.

He sat up in his seat. “Now, I want you to tell me what you’re doing while you’re doing it,” he stated, smiling at Max.

She nodded. “Alright, well I’m tearing the lettuce,” she commented whilst doing as she described.

“Uh-huh. Is it dirty?” He asks, looking at Max with peering eyes.

Max looks at the lettuce, slightly worried. “Oh-oh, no no don't worry, I'm gonna wash it,” she promises.

He shakes his head. “Don't, I like it dirty,” he states, making Max raise her eyebrow.

“That’s your call,” she shrugs, before picking up a couple of pieces of fruit.

He attempts to look over the counter to see what Max is doing. “So, uh, what are you going to do next?” He asks.

“Well, I thought that I would cut up the tomatoes,” she said, bouncing the fruits in her hands to make sure they’re ok.

“Are they, uh, firm?” He asks, looking at the red spheres in the redhead's hands.

Max shrugs. “They’re alright,” she stated, before putting them on the wooden chopping board.

“You sure they haven't gone bad? You're sure they're not very, very bad?” The interviewer asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow towards Max.

She simply shakes her head. “No really, they're OK,” she states, picking up a knife to chop the tomatoes.

“You gonna slice them up real nice?” He asked, watching as Max’s hands start to move as she chops the tomatoes.

“Actually, I was gonna do them julienne,” Max said, remembering the culinary knife cut that cuts them into thin strips like matchsticks, that to this day – still make El laugh. Even though the curly-haired young woman hates tomatoes.

“Aaaahhhhhhh,” he sighed, making Max drop the knife.

She dusts off her hands and started to walk. “I’m outta here,” she leaves the restaurant, slamming the door behind her. 

* * *

After Max’s disastrous interview, she went back to the apartment she shared with El. Lucas and Will are sitting on the couch whilst Mike is sitting at the table when the phone rings – he answers it.

“Y-ello. No, El's not here right now, can I take a message? Alright, and how do we spell Casey, is it like at the bat or and the Sunshine Band? OK, bye-bye. Hey, who's this uh, this Casey?” Mike spoke down the phone, before directing his question to Lucas and Will sat on the other side of the room.

Will looked over his shoulder and simply shrugged. “Oh, some guy she met at the movies,” Will continued to flick through a magazine that El was reading.

Mike blinked repeatedly. “Oh really? What uh, what does he want with her?” He asks, setting the note he’d written out, down as well as his pen.

Lucas shrugged. “Well, I'm guessing he wants to do a little dance. . . ya know, make a little love. . . well pretty much get down tonight,” Lucas suggested, making Mike look terrible, with Will swatting the back of Lucas’s head.

As Mike speaks, he put the note he’d written for El on the cupboard. “I don't know, I don't get, I don't get it, I mean, wh, wh, two months ago El and I were like, this close. Right now, what, I'm taking messages from guys she, she meets at the movies? I mean this, this Casey should be takin' down my messages, ya know, or, or, El and I should be together and, and we should get some kind of me, message service,” Mike said, walking back over and slouching in the single chair that was sat on its own.

Will reaches over and pats Mike’s knee. “Hang in there, it's gonna happen,” This makes Mike look over at one of his oldest best friend’s, in shock.

“Wha, OK, now how do you know that?” The dark-haired young man asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

Will simply shrugged. “Because she's your lobster,” Will stated it like it was the only thing he knew.

Lucas pointed at Will. “Oh, he’s goin’ somewhere,” Lucas nodded, smiling.

As Mike shook his head, unable to understand what Will is talking about. However, Will took this as Mike denying this. “C'mon you guys. It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You know what, you can actually see old lobster couples walkin' around their tank, ya know, holding claws like…” Will then mimes a pair of lobsters holding claws. Lucas laughs at the mime that he was doing, when Max walked into her kitchen-living room, seeing her brother and two best friends sat down.

Lucas smiled at Max when he saw her walk in with a towel wrapped around her amber locks. “Hey, you feelin' better?” He asks as she takes the towel away from her hair to pat her face.

“Yeah, I think that fifth shower actually got the interview off me,” she said, before rubbing her long hair with the towel in hand.

Will then looks up at Max. “So, do you have any other possibilities?” He asked, making Max sigh heavily.

“Oh yeah, well there's the possibility that I won't make rent,” Max said, she hated leaving the rent of El to sort out; it was originally her grandmother’s apartment that she had left to Max in the will.

Mike looked at his baby sister and then around at the apartment she is living in. “Max, if you want, I can lend you some money,” he offers, feeling his chequebook sat in his pocket.

Max shakes her head. “No, no, no, if I couldn't pay you back right away then I'd feel guilty and tense every time I saw you,” Max explained, as she started to walk around her apartment, thinking about how she was going to explain to El… That she was going to have to take the brunt of the rent this month.

 “Oh, OK. Well, then why don't you, uhh,” Mike thought for a second. “Why don't you borrow it from mom and dad? You feel guilty and tense around them already. You might as well make some money off of them,” Mike commented, remembering when Max revealed that their father was cheating on their mom. They’d gotten a divorce, and the Wheeler home wasn’t the same… especially for young Holly.

Lucas nods at Mike, remembering Max sobbing into his shoulder, as she accidentally broke up her own parents. “Ya know, the man’s got a point,” as Lucas gestures to Mike, the bracelet around his arm falls off and onto the floor.

“What is that sparkly thing?” Will asks when he picks it up off the floor.

Lucas yanks it out of Will’s hands. “That thing, it's an uhh. . . yea,h it's, it's a little flashy,” Lucas shrugs, putting it back on his wrist – only for it to be yanked away by Mike.

Mike laughed. “No, no, no, no, it's not flashy, not for a Goodfella,” Mike joked, making Max laugh when he made this joke.

“Man, man that is sharp. It must have cost you quite a few doubloons,” Max commented, making her brother laugh in return. They’d need each other after their parents’ divorce, as they often when over to see Holly. 

* * *

Later on that day, Max was stood in her kitchen making something to eat, however, she was interrupted by her parents, who are carrying boxes. “Hi,” Max says tightly, waving slightly at her parents.

“Hi,” Mr Wheeler, Ted, nodded at his daughter and then walked into her apartment. For as long as Max can remember, she has never been close to him. Ever.

“Hi, darling,” Mrs Wheeler, Karen, said patting her daughter’s head with a hand that wasn’t holding her box and walked into the apartment as well.

Max looked at the boxes that were held by her parents and then practically dumped on the coffee table. “So, what’s this?”

“Some of your old stuff,” Ted says, sitting down on Max’s couch and almost falling asleep as he did so.

Max shook her head at her ‘father’s’ actions. “Well, sweetie,” Karen said, pulling Max’s attention away from her ‘father’. “We have a surprise for you. We're turning your room into a gym,” Karen continued, as she announced to her eldest daughter, as she did her usual ‘jazz hands’.

Max blinked repeatedly. “Wow, that is a surprise. Just one little question, uh, why not Mike's room?” She asked, crossing her arms as she walked over to the fridge.

Ted hadn’t even looked up from the box he was unpacking when he said, “Gosh, we talked about that but your brother has so many science trophies and plaques and merit badges, well we didn't want to disturb them,” he said this like Mike overruled Max in everything he has ever done.

“Oh, God forbid,” Max said, rolling her eyes at her family, as she opens the fridge – grabs a bottle of lemonade and slams it shut. This is when El walks in with a laundry basket of their shared washing and into a very awkward situation.

Karen looked at the woman walking in the doorway. “Oh, hi Jane,” she smiled, this was how El was introduced to Karen as ‘Jane’ when her dad, Hopper, adopted her.

“Hi,” she said, meekly, waving awkwardly with the basket in her arms.

Karen sighed heavily. “Oh, we were so sorry to hear about your parents splitting up, dear,” Karen commented on El’s birth parents – El still talks to Terry every now and then to catch up on each other’s lives.

EL shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, well, you know, they're just separated so, you know, never know, we'll see,” El said, not really caring about her so-called ‘father’.

Ted shrugs his shoulders, STILL unpacking the box in front of him. “Well, I can't say any of us were surprised. Your parents have been unhappy ever since we've known them. Especially after that incident in Hawaii,” he said, making El look at him with a raised eyebrow. Has her mother not told her something?

“What, what incident?” She asked, making Karen look between her ex-husband and her daughter’s best friend/son’s long-term crush.

“Uhh, naa, no, no, no, you, you must be thinking of someone else, uh, maybe you. Don’t you have some folding to do? Go fold, dear. Fold. You fold,” Karen says, shuffling El into her room with the laundry basket. 

* * *

In Espresso Express, there was Lucas and Will sat on couches, talking with their coffees sat on the coffee table. There was a beautiful woman on the other side of the room, who was eyeing up Lucas.

“Do you want a refill?” Will asks, looking at his now empty coffee mug.

Lucas looks down at his own. “No, I’m alright thanks,” he smiles at Will, who nodded and started to stand up.

“Ok,” he said, before looking over at the woman checking Lucas out. “Ooh, ok, you gotta give me a second, I wanna get this just right,” Will sticks his gut out, clears his throat, sniffs his nose and then in his best male voice (even though he is one, his voice is more high-pitched than anyone other man’s). “Dude, 11 o’clock, total hot babe checkin’ you out,” he then let the gruff voice go and return to his usual high-pitched voice. “That was really good!” he then goes back to the gruff voice. “I think I’m ready for my penis now,”

Lucas rolls his eyes in a good-natured way and walks over to the woman. “I know what you’re thinking, Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s,” Lucas jokes, making the woman laugh at his statement.

"I’m Gail,” she said, holding her hand out for Lucas to shake.

“Lucas” he replied, and as he waves his arms around, he exposes the bracelet that was given to him by Dustin.

Gail sees this, pretends to check her Nokia 8110, she acts as if she has an SMS message and stands up. “I, I really have to be somewhere but it was nice meeting you,” she leaves the coffee shop with her shoulder bag, fuchsia pink coat and Nokia phone.

Lucas looks confused. “What?” That’s when he realised his bracelet was showing. “Oh, this excellent. You know he coulda gotten me a VCR, he coulda gotten me a set of golf clubs, but no, he has to get me the woman repeller, the eyesore from the Liberace house of crap!” Lucas exclaims, walking over to where Will was now stood with a fresh cup of coffee.

Will shrugged. “It’s not that bad,” he had only seen it so many times since Lucas had acquired the bracelet from Dustin.

Lucas rolls his eyes. “Oh, yeah, easy for you to say, you don’t have to walk around sporting some reject from the Mr T collection,” Lucas commented as Dustin walks in and stands behind Lucas – hearing his comment, which Will noticed by the fall of Dustin’s face.

“Lucas, Lucas,” Will tried to interrupt, as Lucas continued.

“I pity the fool who puts on my jewellery, I do, I do, I pity the fool that...” Lucas puts on his best Mr T impression, and when he turns around due to Will’s expression and sees Dustin stood behind him. “Hi. Hey man, we were just doin’ some, uh, impressions over here. Do your Marcel Marceau,” Lucas creates an excuse, causing Dustin to turn around and walk away without saying anything. “That’s actually good,” Lucas said, putting on a fake smile, with Will shaking his head. 

* * *

After El had started her shift at Espresso Express, she is stood behind the counter, holding a coffee pot – laughing, smiling and talking with the man in front of the counter. Mike is sat on the couch looking over at El and the man, jealousy is written all over his face, with Will sat next to him.

Mike rolls his eyes at the man talking to El. “Would you look at that guy, I mean how long has he been talking to her. It’s like, back off buddy, she’s a waitress, not a geisha,” Mike said, chickening his arms, his coffee that was sat on the coffee table was now going cold.

“I think she’s OK,” Will said, taking a simple glance at the man talking to his adoptive sister.

As Mike kept watching El laughing as she puts a hand on the guy’s shoulder. “Look at that, look at that, see how she’s pushing him away and he won’t budge,” Mike mistook how El was acting as one that didn’t like the guy before her. “Alright, I’m gonna do something,” Mike stands up and walking over to El and the man, in the middle of their conversation. “Excuse me, are you El?” He asks.

“What?” She asks, raising an eyebrow at Mike.

Mike holds out his hand towards El. “I’m Mike Wheeler. Wha, I’m, God in your add you said you were pretty, but wow,” Mike looked at El with what the Party had nicknamed as his ‘heart-eyes’.

“What are you, what are you doin’?” She asked, chickening her arms, glaring at Mike.

“Oh, oh my God, is this the wrong day? I don’t believe it, uh, well, hey, I guess if it works out we’ll, we’ll have something to tell the grandkids,” Mike suggested, smiling at El.

The man next to Mike nodded, slightly terrified. “Sure will. I’ve, uh, gotta go. Take care,” the man said, waving at El.

“OK, see ya later, nice meeting you,” he said, as she smiled at him as he left the café. El proceeded to glare at Mike Wheeler. “You’re welcome,” he said, smiling at El, as her smile fell off her face.

“What?” She asks, raising a confused eyebrow at the human before her.

Mike looked at El, wondering why she was so confused. “I was saving you,” he stated like it was obvious as the Empire State Building.

“Saving… saving… saving me from the pleasant conversation with the interesting man, saving me?” She stutters, something she hasn’t done for years.

“Oh, see from where I was sitting, I, uh…” Mike stuttered back, fiddling with his fingers.

El sighed, looked down at the counter and then back at Mike. “Ok, Mike, listen to me, I am not yours to save,” she said, crossing her arms.

“But, you are,” Mike said, looking at El like she was Princess Peach and he was her Mario.

“What?” El asked as she started to glare at Mike.

“Uh, uh, well you’re, umm, you’re my lobster,” Mike said, remembering the thing that Will had said to him just a couple of days ago.

El rolled her eyes and glared heavier at the man before him. “OK, you know what, are, are you being like the blind date guy again?” El asked, remembering when he did this the last time.

“No, no, you’re uh, you’re my lobster. See, um, lobsters, uh, in the tank when, when, when they're old, uh, they get with, uh, they walk around holding the claws. In the tank, ya know, with, with the holding and. . . Uhh, Wills, you wanna help me out with the, the whole lobster thing?” Mike started to explain, but couldn’t find a way. As he turned around an asked Will, looking over his shoulder at him.

“Do the claws again,” Will suggested, miming the ‘claws’.

Mike shook his head. “Ellie. OK, forget, forget the lobsters, ok. We’re... let’s talk. What about us?” Mike asks, putting his heart on the line – like he always has done with El.

“Mike, there is no ‘us’, ok,” El puts quotation marks around ‘us’, and shakes her head at Mike.

Mike blinks. “No, but...” he tries to say but is interrupted by El.

She holds a finger in front of his face. “No, listen to me. I fell for you, and I get clobbered. You then fall for me and I again, somehow, get clobbered. Ya know, it’s, it’s just not worth it,” she sighed, crossing her arms as she started to glare at Mike.

“Well, but, but...” Mike tries again to say something but is once again stopped by El.

“NO, but Mike! We are never gonna happen, ok. Accept that,” She said, shaking her hands, putting an end to the conversation.

“E-except... except that what?” Mike said, hopeful that El doesn’t mean what he thinks she means.

She shakes her head. “No, no, ACC-ept that,” she puts definition the ‘ACC’ part of the word, and walked away from Mike into the back, feeling the tears that were starting to well up in the backs of her eyes.

“Oh...” Mike sighs, looking over at Will, heartbroken. 

* * *

Later on, in Lucas and Dustin’s apartment, Lucas is sat in his chair waiting for Dustin to walk in – which he does. Lucas smiles at his best friend/roommate.

“Hey man, look it’s my best bud! How ya doin?” Lucas asks, not getting a response from Dustin. “Wow, you are really gettin’ good at that Marcel Marceau thing,” Lucas comments. “Hey, whaddya say, uh, we play some ball, you and me, huh, whaddya say?” Lucas suggests throwing a basketball to Dustin – who doesn’t move to catch it as it takes out a lamp. “Ok, that’s my bad,” Lucas comments again.

Dustin rolls his eyes. “If you hated the bracelet so much, Lucas, you should have just said so,” Dustin sighs, looking at the dark-skinned man in front of him.

Lucas looks at his best friend. “Well, doesn’t the fact that I wore the bracelet even though I hated it say something about our friendship and how much it means to me?” Lucas asks, making Dustin sigh heavily.

Dustin just crosses his arms. “Well, what about the fact that you insulted the bracelet and made fun of me?” Dustin questioned, making Lucas sigh in guilt.

“Ok, well that’s the part where I’m a wank. But, I was hoping we wouldn’t focus on that,” Lucas says, making Dustin walk away into his room and shutting the door behind him. “Hey, c’mon man, I said I was sorry like a hundred times, I promise I will never take it off my...” Lucas then notices his bracelet was missing from his wrist. “Wrist. But if, if you want to stay in there and be mad, you know, you just, uh, you stay in there,” Lucas starts searching around their apartment, lifting up the couch cushions.

“You know what the...” Dustin trails off, as he sees Lucas sat on his knees next to the couch, holding the couch cushions.

“I am here, on my knees, holding up these couch cushions as a symbol of my sorrow and regret, much like they did in biblical times. Though you may haveth anger now...” Lucas says, making Dustin roll his eyes and return to his room. 

* * *

In Max and El’s apartment, Max is sitting at the table watching her parents, who are watching the tennis match.

“You know, that Steffi Graf has quite a tush. I’m just saying, it’s right there,” Ted commented, making Karen roll her eyes – but she decided not to cause a fight as her son walked through the door.

"Hey, guys,” Mike smiled, shutting the door gently behind him as he gave his sister a side hug.

Karen smiled at her only son. “Hi, darling, Where’s my grandson, you didn’t bring him?” Karen asked, almost reaching her hands out for her grandbaby, but that’s when she didn’t see him.

“No, he’s at, uh, Amanda and Susan’s today,” Mike said, scratching the back of his neck, thinking of his ex-wife and her wife.

Ted took one look at his son. “A woman in my office is a lesiban. I’m just saying,” Ted spoke up, once again making Karen roll her eyes as she tried to be civil in front of her kids.

When Karen looked over at the TV, it was playing the old advert of a commercial that Ted use to like. “Oh, Ted look, there’s that house paint commercial that cracks you up,” she diverted his attention the TV, including her own, as Mike walks over to his older sister and sits next to her.

“Where have you been?” Max asks, looking up at her baby brother.

Mike sighs, “Emotional hell...” Mike trails off, remembering his atrocious encounter with El. “So, did they lend you the money yet?” He asks, making Max sigh.

"No,” she shakes her head. “But, that’s probably ‘cause I haven’t asked them yet,” she stated, leaning her head against the table.

Mike shakes his head. “C’mon Max, do it,” he nudges her shoulder before looking over at their parents. “Hey, you guys, um, Max has some news,” Mike said, putting her on the spot when their parents’ looked over the back of the sofa at them – mainly Max.

She sighed. “Um, yeah, so, uh, uh, listen, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before but umm, I, I’m no longer at my job. I, I had to leave it,” she said, fiddling with her fingers, looking at her kitchen table.

“Why?” Karen asked.

Max sighed. “Because they made me...”

Karen looked shocked at her daughter. “You were fired? What’re you gonna do?” Karen asked, looking confused at her daughter.

Ted looked over the back of the sofa at his eldest daughter. “Karen, Karen, relax, this is our little Maxie we're talking about. We taught her well. Ten percent of your paycheck, where does it go?” Ted asked, looking at his eldest children.

“In the bank,” both Max and Mike said in sync.

Ted walked over to where Max and Mike were sat. “There you go. So, she dips into her savings, that’s what it’s there for. She’s gonna be fine, and if you need a little extra, you know where to find it,” he said, and he pulls a quarter from behind her ear and handing it to her.

“Anything larger back there?” She asks. 

* * *

Once again, during El’s shift at Espresso Express, Will and Lucas walk in. Lucas has guilt written all over his face, as Will trails behind him.

“I can’t believe it,” Lucas exclaims, as they take their coats off.

Will rolls his eyes at Lucas’s overreaction. “Would you stop already? Get out of the bitter barn and play in the hay,” this was something Hopper had always said to Will and El when they were growing up.

Lucas sighs. “Oh, you’re right, I, I should play in the hay. Forget about the fact that I just dropped 400 dollars to replace a bracelet that I hated, to begin with. Bring on the hay,” Lucas jokes, sitting down at the bar in the coffee house.

Considering this was El’s shift, she came from the back and made Lucas jump when she started speaking. “Hey. I’ve got something that’s gonna make you happy. Guess what Gunther found?” She asked, holding up Lucas’s bracelet in between her fingers.

Will smiles. “Hey, now you have two!” He exclaims, to which Lucas is extremely annoyed. “Oh, now you have two…” he trailed off, as Lucas took the bracelet off El, who went to go deal with some customers.

“What am I gonna do, huh?” He asks Will, as Dustin walked into the coffee house, standing behind Lucas and Will.

“Hey,” Dustin waved, making an idea pop into Will’s head.

“Hey,” Lucas replied, the same idea that went into Will’s head went into Lucas’s.

Dustin looked at the bracelet in Lucas’s hand and then to the one on his wrist. “How come you have two?” He asks.

“Well, this one’s for you,” Lucas stated, holding the bracelet out to Dustin.

Dustin frowned. “Get out,” he said flatly.

“No, I can’t,” Dustin starts to move away. “No, no, listen, I, I know how much this means to you, and I also know that this is more than just jewellery,” Lucas says, as he puts the bracelet around Dustin’s wrist. “It’s about you and me, and the fact that we’re,” Lucas then puts his wrist next to Dustin’s. “Best buds,” he gives Dustin a smile.

Dustin then smiles. “Wow, is this friendship? I think so. Check it out, we’re bracelet buddies!” Dustin exclaims, as his smile gets bigger.

“That’s what they’ll call us,” Lucas says, as he is tackled in a hug by Dustin. 

* * *

In Max and El’s apartment, there are the Wheeler siblings, Mike and Max are standing in the girls’ kitchen. Well, Max is stood up; Mike is sat at the table, filling out a check.

Mike hands Max the check that he had just signed for her. “Here you go,” Mike smiles at his sister. “You can pay me back whenever you like,” Mike continued, giving his sister a smile and no time limit.

Max raised an eyebrow. “You have dinosaur cheques?” She questioned.

“Yeah, yeah, I mean, you get your money and you learn a little something, what’s wrong with that?” Mike had rolled his eyes at Max’s statement, before putting his chequebook back in his jacket pocket.

Max shook her head. “Nothin’, nothin’, hey you’re a cheapasaurus,” Mike looked up at Max with a hurt look on his face. “I'm kidding, I'm kidding, thank you, I'm very grateful,” Max wrapped her arms around her brother and kissed his cheek, showing how grateful she is for her amazing big brother.

With Max and Mike having a sweet moment, Will is stood in the living room with Lucas and Dustin, who are looking through boxes from Max’s childhood. Will pulls out a huge bathing suit, that makes Lucas and Dustin’s eyes widen. “Hey, Maxie, what is this?”

Max’s eyes widen and she ran over and snatched it out of Will’s hand. “Oh, um, that was my bathing suit from high school. I was, uh, a little bigger then…” Max said, fiddling with her fingers, everyone remembers the time where Max had gone through a rough patch when her father had a heart attack and was on his deathbed for 3 months, recovering.

“Oh, I thought that’s what they used to cover Connecticut when it rained,” Lucas joked, it wasn’t much of a sore spot anymore, with Mike and Max’s father recovered and just brushing it off like nothing happened…

Dustin was also digging around the box and pulled out a VCR tape that is starting to go a little bit yellow on the tape, with no name on. “Hey, Max, what’s on this tape?” He asks.

“Hey, you got me,” Max shrugs. “Put it in,” Max says, walking over to where the VCR player.

Mike looks away from the group of four to the door, when it opens, and in walks El, tired after her long and early morning shift. “Oh,” he said, feeling awkward around his long-time crush and his sister’s roommate/best friend.

“Hi,” she says, meekly, putting her bag on the countertop between them.

“Hi,” he replies, looking at her tired face.

 _“Over here, Joyce,”_ is heard in the living room part in the apartment, pulling Mike and El away from each other’s faces. _“OK, I see, El’s coming up the path. Oh, doesn’t she look pretty!” Karen cooed, as the camera is zoomed in on her_. _“Joyce, get this,” El walks into the Wheeler home, (her older sister having helped her get ready – while Joyce and Karen helped Max) her nose a different size to what it is now…_

El’s eyes widen. She walks away from Mike and sits in front of the chair Max is occupying. “Oh my God!” she sounds so embarrassed in front of her friends.

“What is with your nose?” Dustin asked, looking from 1989 El to 1996 El.

“They had to reduce it because of, of my deviated septum,” El explained, sighing heavily and leaning against Max’s chair.

“Ok, I was wrong,” Lucas said. “That’s what they used to cover Connecticut,” he jokes, making El look over at the dark-skinned man and glare at him.

Max gasped when she realised what was on this VCR tape. “You know what this is? This is us getting ready for the prom,” Max said, looking down at El.

“Oh!” El also gasped, curling in next to Max’s leg.

“You know what, you guys, we don’t have to watch this,” Mike said, trying to bargain with his friends, knowing what happened the night of Max and El’s prom…

Everyone looked over at the oldest Wheeler child. “Oh, yeah, we do. C’mon,” they all say, making Mike sigh and look at the floor, embarrassment starting to rise in his stomach.

_“Get a shot of Max! Where’s Max?” Karen Wheeler asked, looking over Joyce Byers’ shoulder and looking around for her daughter._

_"Over here, mom,” Max says, waving her hand to Karen. Karen made Joyce turn around and the camera screen was taken up with Max’s torso…_

_Joyce fiddles with the camera. “Wait, how do you zoom out?” After a short while, the camera then zooms out, and we see an overweight Max eating a sandwich. “There she is,” Joyce cooed at her adoptive daughter’s friend._

“Some girl ate Max!” Dustin exclaimed, pointing to the TV screen.

Max crossed her arms. “Shut up, the camera adds ten pounds,” she pouts as El’s hand comforts her.

“Ahh, so how many cameras are actually on you?” Lucas joked, making El giggle, but she shut up by a glare from Max.

_Max gasped when she saw El on the other side of the room. “Oh, you look so great!” Max wandered over to El._

_“Ahh, so do you, beautiful,” El clapped her hands at Max and the girl pair share a warm and loving hug._

_Then Max gasps and pulls away from El. “Oops,” she meekly said._

_“What?” El looks at Max, worried look on her face._

_“Shoot, I think I got mayonnaise on you…”  Max continued to say meekly looking at where the mayonnaise hit El._

_El also looks at where the mayonnaise hit her. “Oh, that’s OK, it’s just the shoulder, it’s not my dress,” she said, as Karen walked over and wiped it away with a tissue._

_“Everybody smile,” Joyce said, pointing the camera to the girls’._

_“Oh, Joyce, turn it off!” El complained, trying to hide Max from the camera, with Max’s help._

_“It is off,” Joyce replied, looking away from the camera_

_El rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Joyce, it is not,” the Byers-Hopper’s were in the process of adopting Jane ‘El’ Eleanor Brenner. “What’s with the red light?” She asks, arms still crossed as she raised her eyebrow._

_“It’s the off light. Right, Mike?” Joyce asked her son’s oldest friend – Michael Wheeler – who is stood by a set of drawers, with an afro and moustache._

“Lookin’ good Mr Cotter,” Dustin commented, drawing a giggle out of El and hurt looks out of Mike.

_Mike had walked over to where El is, who is waiting for her prom date, and Max is back in the kitchen eating something. “You look pretty tonight,” Mike commented, making a smile flutter along El’s face._

_“Oh, thanks. So, uh, what are you doing do this summer?” El asks, looking at Mike._

_“Oh, you know,” Mike shrugged. “I’m just gonna, I’m gonna hang out, work on my music,” Mike continued._

_As Mike struggled to find the words he was going to say, El’s baby blue dress keeps on slipping off her shoulders, soon she couldn’t take it anymore, turned around and asked Mike. “Is my hook unhooked? These things keep falling down, I can’t...” She looked over her shoulder at him._

_“Uh, hold, let me see, I don’t know,” Mike said, moving El’s recently straightened hair, to look at the hook just below the base of her neck. “So, what’re you gonna do...” Mike started and then the doorbell rings, making El squeal._

_“Oh, the guys are here!” She runs away from Mike and to the front door – the rustle of her dress as she went._

_Mike watched her walk away, feeling his heart shattering again, it always happened when El chose someone else with realising that he felt that way about her. But he’d never told her how he felt... “This summer?” He trailed off, looking in the direction she went away in._

“Work on your music?” Lucas asks, raising an eyebrow at the dark-haired man behind the soft.

_As Mike sits on the stairs with his laptop keyboard as he plays ‘Axel-F’ on it. Joyce moves the camera over so that it is focused on Max and her date for the night._

El gasps when she saw who Max’s date was – that she had completely forgotten who it was. “Oh my God, look there’s Roy Gublik!” She points to the screen.

Max looked down at El. “ya know, Roy saw _Star Wars_ 317 times. His name was in the paper,” Max remembers, making El raise her eyebrows – wondering how Roy hadn’t gotten bored of the series yet.

_El looked out of the window, looking for her prom date. “Where’s Chip, why isn’t he here yet?” She asked, pacing the length of the hallway._

_“He’ll be here, OK, take a chill pill,” Roy stated and then pinning Max’s corsage onto her dress. When he turns away, and Max turns to her friend and whispers in her ear, making the pair giggle like the pair of school girls they are._

“I just told El that Roy touched my boob,” Max said, making her and El giggle.

_El was sat on the Wheeler’s couch, with her head in her hands, feeling totally embarrassed. “I can’t go to my own prom without a date, I can’t, it’s too late,” she was almost sobbing in her hands, almost curled up into a ball._

_“If you’re not going, then I don’t want to go either,” Max stated, hugging El tightly._

_Roy sighed heavily. “Oh, I’m gonna kick Chip’s ass,” Roy said, pacing the length of the Wheeler’s living room, awaiting El’s date for the night._

_Karen turned away from the girls and Max’s date, to look at her son, still sat on the stairs – slightly nursing his broken heart. “I have a wonderful idea. You should take El to the prom!” Karen gave a suggestion to Mike._

_“Doubtful,” Mike sighed, as he continued to play his keyboard._

_Karen sighed, just like her son. “Joyce, give me that. Talk to him,” Karen takes the camera and pushes Joyce towards Mike._

_“You mother’s right. Take her, you can wear your dad’s tux,” Joyce offered._

_“Joyce, she won’t want to go with me,” Mike stated, like it was fact – were in Mike’s brain it was fact, that El didn’t feel the same about him that he did about her._

_Joyce rolls her eyes. “Of course she would, you’re a college man,” Joyce counters._

_“I don’t know,” Mike sighs again._

_“Well, c’mon. Don’t ya want to find out?” Joyce asks, resting her hand on Mike’s shoulder._

_“I can’t believe I don’t get to go to my own prom, this is so harsh!” El exclaimed, almost looking like something had been stabbed through her heart._

_Mike nods and smiles. “Ok. Hold my board,” Mike said, shoving his keyboard into Joyce’s hands as he runs upstairs to get changed._

_"Atta boy!” Karen and Joyce exclaimed, smiling at the college boy run. Karen was hoping that her boy was finally going to get his girl._

Mike is stood behind the couch, knowing what will happen. “Ok, you guys, ya know, I think we’ve seen enough, let’s turn it off,” Mike says, hopping from one foot to the other.

"No, no, no,” came the voices of the rest of the party, as they wave off Mike’s comment.

Mike sighs, knowing that he doesn’t want to be here when it comes up, which will be soon. “Ok, fine, well I’m not gonna watch, alright,” Mike says and walks over to the door.

_“C’mon kid, let’s go,” Joyce said, smiling at her youngest son’s best friend, as he walks down the stairs in a smart tuxedo that his dad had once worn when his parents were once happy. Many moons ago._

_Karen sees her only son walk down onto the landing. “Ahh, aren’t you handsome!” Karen cooes, smiling at him, making him blush._

_Joyce also smiles. “Let’s show ‘em,” she offers, making Mike sigh with all the jittery nerves flying in his stomach._

_“Uh, just a sec, Joyce,” Mike said, before he started talking to himself. “Ok, be cool, just be cool,” he then started walking down the stairs, and grabs the flowers from the vase that is sat on the end table. “OK,” he nods to Joyce._

_Joyce walks downstairs, with Karen holding the camera. “Ellie, ready or not, here comes your knight in shining...” Joyce looks into the foyer and sees that Chip has shown up and that the four are leaving for their prom. “Oh no,” she mutters, showing a worried looking to Karen._

_"Bye!” The four shout, as they leave the Wheeler home, the door shutting loudly behind them – not knowing what they have caused to Mike._

_“Oh, dear,” Karen started fiddling with the camera, “Joy, how do you turn this off?” Karen asked, looking over the camera at her extremely long-time best friend, and then at her precious baby boy, whose eyes hadn’t moved from when El walked out the door._

_“Press the button,” Joyce said, walking over to Mike and wrapping an arm around his shoulder._

_Karen looked at the buttons and raised an eyebrow. “Which one? Which button, Joy?” She asked, looking again at her baby as tears started to well at the bottom of his eyes._

_“The button, the button,” Joyce said, as she was thrown the camera, and it then went black._

With the tape cutting out as it ended, everyone except El turned around to look at Mike, in awe of what he did for El when they were in High School. El continued to look at the blackened screen, wondering what she was thinking when she when she dismissed her thinking that Mike never had feelings for her. He did! He always had done. And to think, she was just going to push away her feelings for Mike, because she didn’t want to get her heart broken again…

“I can’t believe you did that,” Max said, looking over at her brother, in shock that Mike had done that for her best friend.

Mike shrugs. “Yeah, well,” he stated, looking down at his feet, unable to find an explanation.

El looks away from the TV screen and to Mike, she stands up and walks around the furniture in hers and Max’s apartment, until she is toe to toe with Mike, her hands flutter around Mike’s face, before pulling him in for their second kiss, one that they’d both been craving for years on end. Mike falls into the kiss, holding onto her face like it's his life preserver like he needs this – which he always has.

Max holds her hands over her heart, having seen the way Mike has looked at her best friend and roommate for years. Dustin and Lucas high-fived, as Will, smiles at his step-sister and his best friend, as they finally kissed after years upon years of pent-up tension. “See, he’s her lobster,” Will commented. 

* * *

**CLOSING CREDITS**

* * *

Later on, when El had been pulled out of her apartment by Mike, they had lots of lost time to make up for, however considering Mike still has a girlfriend, they weren’t doing anymore kissing until Mike was once again, single. The boys had gone back to their apartment, taking Will with the for a foosball competition, leaving Max on her own to watch the rest of the tapes.

_“Dance with him,” Karen said to her daughter, as Ted had come ‘home’ for a ‘visit’, after Max had come home from Prom – which was basically a disaster after the girls got dumped by their dates..._

_Max rolled her eyes, not wanting to dance with her ‘father’. “Mom, I’m hungry,” Max complains, looking up at her mother with her usual ‘hungry puppy dog eyes’._

_Like mother, like daughter, Karen rolled her eyes at her daughter. “Dance with your father,” Karen said, pointing from her daughter to her soon to be ex-husband._

_Max sighed, walked to her estranged father and awkwardly put her hands on his shoulders. Ted spoke up. “I may not know any of your flash dances, but I’m no slouch on the dance floor,” he said, making Max roll her eyes._

_"Alright,” she put on a fake grin and started dancing with her ‘dad’._

_The tape then cuts to Max and Mike’s parents who are under the covers. Unknown to them, but from that lone thing, the Wheeler siblings would get their baby sister Holly._ _The tape is that of Karen and Ted doing ‘their thing’ leaving Max visibly upset and traumatised._

* * *

 

**END**


	5. Season 03, Episode 02: "The One Where No One's Ready"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stressed Mike desperately and insistently tries to get the rest of the gang ready for a black tie event at the museum, while Dustin and Lucas clash over personal belongings and personal space.

**Season 3, Episode 2: "The One Where No One's Ready**

* * *

At Max and El’s apartment, everyone is getting ready to go to a banquet for the black tie event at the museum that Mike works at. Dustin is rooting through the fridge, whilst Lucas is watching him with a raised eyebrow. Max and El are getting ready in their respective rooms.

“Alright they got water, orange juice, and what looks like cider,” Dustin said, taking a glass of some substance from the fridge.

“Taste it,” Lucas suggested, smirking at Dustin – as El had blabbed to what was in the mysterious glass that sat in the fridge.

Dustin takes a drink from the glass, slightly pulls a face, and puts it back in the fridge. “Yep, it’s fat. I drank fat!” Dustin exclaimed, crossing his arms.

Lucas’s smirk gets bigger. “Yeah, I know, I did that two minutes ago,” Lucas admitted, considering that El had told him when he had drunk it.

When Lucas had admitted this, Mike walked in, in a tuxedo – looking extremely suited and booted. “Hey!” he said, as he walked in.

“Hey, mister tux!” Lucas smiled, making Mike gape at the two stood/sat before him.

“Why aren’t you guys dressed?” Mike asked, crossing his arms.

Dustin rolled his eyes. “We have half an hour!” Dustin countered, making Mike roll his eyes in return.

“No, four minutes ago you had a half hour; we have to be out of the door at twenty to eight!” Mike countered, sighing heavily.

Dustin did a counter sigh. “Relax Mike! We’ll be ready. It only takes us two minutes to get dressed,” Dustin explains, knowing how long it would take for him and Dustin to get dressed, rather than Max, El and Will.

Mike rested his head in his hand for just a second, before looking back at his best friends. “Well, you know, I’d feel a whole lot better if you got dressed now,” Mike said, sighing and waited for them to move.

“Okay,” they said, as they didn’t make any effort to move like Mike had expected them to.

That’s when El walks into the kitchen-living room from the bathroom, wrapped up in a long white towel that covers everything from the view that needed hiding. She looks over at Mike and her smiles blossoms quickly. “Hey-hey! Oh, look at you, all sexy,” she cooes, walking over to him slowly.

“Really?” Mike asks, looking down at his tie – something that he had finally mastered, and looks at his girl with a raised eyebrow.

She holds her towel with one hand and tugs at his tie with the other. “Ooooh! Wow!! Oh, hi,” she continues to coo, as she wrapped her arm around his shoulder.

“Hi,” he cooed back, giving her a soft Eskimo kiss.

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “How come you didn't come over earlier?” She asks, making Mike sigh and resting his head against her freshly washed shoulder.

“‘Cause, I'm a stupid, stupid man,” Mike states, kissing her shoulder, and looking down at his tiny girlfriend.

Dustin pulls out the glass of fat. “Hey, Mike, want some cider?” He offers.

Mike took one look at the glass Dustin was holding. “No,” he stated before looking back at El. “So, um, let's see your pretty close, huh. Make-up's on, hair's done,” Mike smiled, overlooking his gorgeous girl, she was perfect without makeup.

El nodded happily. “Yeah, I just have to get dressed,” she smiled, rubbing her arm with a part of the hanging towel.

“Yay! And that takes what? Just six or seven minutes?” Mike smiled, as he ran careful fingers over her carefully positioned hair. Considering her curly hair was as uncontrollable as his own, it was a shock to see it so perfect and proper.

El nodded, and gently squeezed his upper arm. “Yeah! Once, I figure out what I’m wearing…” El trailed off, making Mike sigh and lean his forehead against hers.

“Glass of fat?” Dustin offers, getting no answer in return. 

* * *

**Opening Credits**

* * *

Still, in Max and El’s apartment, Mike is pacing throughout the girls’ apartment, he was extremely nervous.

“What’s a matter, Mike? What you’re nervous about your speech?” Dustin asked, looking at his extremely pale friend, he was paler than usual.

Mike shakes his head. “No!” He exclaims and then looks down at Dustin who is sat in the standalone chair. “Do you wanna hear it?” He asks.

“Am I in it?” Dustin asks with shining eyes.

“Uh, huh. Yeah, right after I thank everyone for giving Maxie to the museum, I sing a song about the wonder that is Dustin,” Mike sarcastically said, making the light in Dustin’s eyes, dim a little.

“Hello,” Will said as he walks in, in a smart tux that he had once worn to prom, making the pair do some kind of whistle as Will starts to blush at the sweetness of his friends.

Mike smiles, wrapping an arm around his small friend’s shoulder.  “Hey!” Mike said in reply, shaking the small man around slightly, making him laugh

Dustin smiles at the small, suited and booted, man. “Whoa!” He exclaimed, making another blush, flush Will’s cheeks.

“Wow, hello! You look great!” Mike commented, Will’s face becoming more and more like a cherry tomato.

“Thank you! I know, though,” he jokes, making Dustin laugh.

Mike points to Will as he directed his statement in Dustin’s direction. “You see this; this is a person who is ready to go! Will, you, oh, you are my star!” Mike exclaims, hugging his oldest friend.

Will returns the sentiment with a hug. “Ohh, well, you’re my lucky penny,” Will awkwardly said, making Mike smile – this was something Will had said to him as a tiny 5-year-old.

Lucas walked back out from the bathroom, with a copy of El’s Cosmo in his hand. “Alright, I took the quiz, and it turns out, I do put career before men!” Lucas said as he walked over to where Dustin was sat. “Get up,” he said to the curly haired twin of El.

“What?” He asked, with a raised, confused eyebrow.

“You’re in my seat,” Lucas said, crossing his arms.

Dustin raised his other eyebrow. “How is this your seat?” Dustin asked again, leaning back in his seat.

“'Cause I was sitting there,” Lucas said this like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

“But then you left,” Dustin counter, wiggling further into the seat.

Lucas rolled his eyes, for what felt like the millionth time. “Well, it’s not like I went to Spain. I went to the bathroom; you knew I was coming back!” Lucas exclaimed, throwing the magazine onto the coffee table.

“What’s the big deal?” Dustin asked. “Sit somewhere else?” He offered, reaching over and grabbing the magazine that Lucas had absentmindedly thrown onto the coffee table.

Lucas sighed heavily. “The big deal is I was sitting there last, so, that's my seat,” Lucas countered, looking down at Dustin like he would his little sister, Erica.

Dustin looked at Lucas the same way he did when they were kids. “Well, actually the last place you were sitting was in there,” Dustin explains, as he points to the bathroom. “So…” he trails off like it is his main explanation.

Mike had been holding his head in his hands the entire time, as he was now getting sick of the pair fighting. “You guys, you know what, you know what, it doesn't matter because you both have to go get dressed before the big vain in my head pops. So…” Mike trailed off, making Lucas roll his eyes in sync with Dustin.

Lucas nods at his best friend. “Alright, Mike, I just have to do one thing, really quickly, it’s not a big deal,” he said, as Mike nodded – accepting this. “GET UP!” He yells into Dustin’s ear.

This is when Max walks in after her shift at the restaurant she currently works at. “Hi,” she smiled at her friends and her brother.

“Hey,” they all reply, as they turn around to look at Max as she dumped the girls’ necessities onto the kitchen table that they needed for the week.

Max smiles at the suit that Will is wearing. “Ooh, Will, you look great!” She ****

“Alright already!” Will said, rolling his eyes jokingly, and sat down on the sofa in the end near Dustin.

Max then looks at what Mike is wearing, and starts to tease her brother like she always has done. “Ooh, are you gonna do magic?” She asks, making Mike roll his eyes heavily.

Mike put on a fake laugh. “That’s, that’s funny. Change!” He exclaimed, making Max roll her eyes at her older brother.

“Hang on a second, I just got in!” She replies, putting El’s animal crackers onto the shelf, the woman has loved animal crackers for years, since Max and El catch food in their mouths on the first day of school having bonded over their mutual hatred of Stacey.

Mike sighed. “Look, I don’t care, it starts at eight, we can’t be late!” Mike exclaimed, throwing his head into his hands and then looking at his younger sister.

Will nodded at Mike’s statement. “We could not, would not want to wait,” Will puts in his own statement, making Mike nod at him and repeatedly point to Will – as if putting Will’s comment in bold, capital letters.

Mike sighed again. “Look, our table is down in front, okay, my boss is gonna be there, everyone will see if we arrive after it starts,” Mike says, and this is when Max beings to understand her brother better.

Max put a bottle of orange juice into the fridge and pulled out her glass of fat. “Has somebody been drinking my fat?” She had noticed that it was lower before she went to work. Lucas and Dustin look at each other with shocked and scared expression that Max had noticed.

El walks out from her bedroom, holding a jacket and skirt to her body. “You guys,” she said, pulling the attention away from Max’s glass of fat. “Does this look like something the girlfriend of a palaeontologist would wear?” El asked, mainly looking for Mike’s input.

Will smiled as a joke came to his mind. “I don’t know; you might be the first one,” Will said, making El roll her eyes in a good fashioned nature.

Max looked over at El, nodded when she saw the dress in her roommate’s hands, and then asked, “Ellie, did you check the machine?”

“Uh, no,” she shakes her head, remembering that she didn’t check the machine when she came home from working the afternoon shift. She instantly dumped her stuff in her room and started getting ready for Mike’s black-tie event at his work. She looks down at the outfit she was holding and shakes her head. “Wait, you know what, this is the outfit that makes my calves look fat. Never mind,” she walked back into her room to pick another.

Lucas shook his head as El went back to her room, and looked down at Dustin. “Well, Dustin, I wrote a little song today. It’s called: Get Up,” Lucas said, making Dustin sigh.

Dustin sighs. “Alright! You can have the chair,” Dustin says, looking up at Lucas.

A wave of shock flooded Lucas. “Really?!” He exclaimed.

Dustin then proceeds to pull out his crossed fingers. “Oh my, would you look at that!” He laughed, making Will laugh with him and Lucas roll his eyes in reply at the childish act.

Max starts checking the messages on the machine as she enters the password to the answering machine. “Hi, it’s me,” Will’s voice came out of the machine. “I’m coming over now. Hey, what if I’m already there when you’re playing this message?” Will asks as the tape went to the next message. “Is that too spooky?” 

“Hi Ellie, are you there?” Came Mike’s voice. “It’s me, pick up. El. Ellie!” Mike’s voice dragged her name out as El walked back into the main part of the girls’ apartment.

“What?!” She asks her boyfriend, yet another dress in her hands.

Mike shakes his head, that El couldn’t see. “Never mind!” He calls back.

Then there was a double deep on the answering machine, and Max’s ex-boyfriend, Richard’s voice came over the machine. “Max, it’s Richard. Call me,” she looks around at her friends in shock.

“Is-is-is that message old or new?” She asks, and when nobody answered her, she got louder. “Old or new?! OLD OR NEW?!” She practically screamed, making Mike reach over the sofa to rest his hands on his sister’s shoulders.

Mike had heard the double beep on the machine and decided to comment on this. “It’s old, it’s definitely old. Didn’t you hear the, the double beep?” He said, pointing to the object that was causing his sister her anxiety.

“What if it’s new? I mean, we agreed not to talk again, unless we had something really important to say. Shouldn’t I call him back?” She asks, looking around at the friends she had surrounded herself by. Hoping Lucas would say something encouraging.

“Honey, you did call him back. ‘Cause, it’s, it’s really old,” Lucas said, making Max sigh and look down at the ground, remembering the last time she called Richard.

Mike nodded at what Lucas said. “Yeah, see Maxie, listen, listen,” he said as he walked around the sofa and crouched in front of her. “When Amanda and I broke up, I went through the same thing. And you know what I did?” He said, making Max look up at her older brother.

“Huh?” She asked, confused over what he was saying.

“I… got… dressed. Really, really quickly. Okay, okay,” Mike said, brushing away the statement, as El started to follow Max into Max’s room, that is when Mike stops her by grabbing his shoulders and sends her back into her own room. “There we go, there we go,” Mike smiled.

Lucas rolled his eyes at Mike. “You know what, okay, fine. Don’t get up, you just sit right there,” Lucas said, as he went straight back into his argument with Dustin. “I just hope, you don’t mind, you know, my hand right here,” Lucas held his hand a couple of inches in front of Dustin’s face. “Op, not touching, can’t get mad! Not touching, can’t get mad! Not touching, can’t get mad!” Lucas repeatedly, reverting into his childhood self when he had fought against Erica. This is when Dustin flings his dip, attempting for it to hit Lucas when it splats on Will’s pristine suit with a wet slop.

Will rarely gets mad, and when he does, it blows up beyond his reach. “Ah! Oh my God! You r-r-rotten boys!” He exclaimed, Will could never come up with best insults, he mainly called people ‘mouthbreathers’ because that’s what El calls people.

Lucas and Dustin looked at the mess that they had caused for Will. “Sorry, Will,” they said, looking at Will with guilt written all over their faces.

Dustin looked with a load of guilt towards Will. “I’m so sorry,” he said, watching Will take off the jacket and look at the massive stain.

“What am I gonna do?” He asks, as he then starts to rub the stain – only making it worse.

Years of training, and things being embedded in his brain, Mike knew that you weren’t supposed to rub stains. “No, no, don’t, don’t, rub it! Don’t!” Mike exclaimed, reaching over to stop him. “What gets out hummus?! What gets out hummus?!” He exclaims louder, as he started to pace the front of the sofa.

Max walks back into the main room, as she walks over to the phone. “Max, Max, you know what gets out hummus?” Will asks, looking over at what he thinks as his saviour.

“If it is a new message, what is he calling to say?” She ignores what Will has said, and pushes her dilemma into the foreground.

Will rolls his eyes. “Okay, thanks. Yeah, I’ll try that,” he sarcastically says, this was something Will had quickly picked up from his mother at a young age whenever she would argue with his ‘father’, much like Max and Mike, Will had a disturbed and horrible relationship with the man that helped give him life.

“Maybe he’s calling to say your obsessive and crazy,” Lucas suggested, trying to lighten the mood, only for Max to glare at him for a second.

She then rolls her eyes at him. “So, should I call him back?” She asked, looking around at the boys who make her life so much funnier and happier.

They all widen their eyes at what Max had just said. “Noo!” They exclaim. They watch as she accepts her fate and watch in horror as she starts to go back to her room – she then stops. “NO!” They shout, making Max nod, and walk into her room to get changed.

Lucas then shifts the conversation back to his and Dustin’s argument, something that Mike felt like it had been going on for years when it had only been a combined total of 10 minutes. “Alright, fine, you know what, we’ll both sit in the chair,” Lucas says, as he proceeded to sit in Dustin’s lap. “I’m soooo comfortable,” Lucas said, actually feeling very comfortable in Dustin’s lap for some reason... ****

Dustin nods. “Me too. In fact, I think I might be a little too comfortable,” Dustin said, making Lucas’s eyes widen like an anime character, he knew exactly what Dustin was talking about...

“Alright!” He exclaimed, jumping up from his lap and glaring down at Dustin.

Mike sighed, crossing his arms, looking down at Dustin and then up at Lucas. “Okay, look, we have nineteen minutes. Okay, Lucas, I want you to go and change! Okay. And then, when you come back, Dustin will go change, and he’ll have vacated the chair. Okay? Okay,” Mike said, looking between the two men who were acting like children, stood before him.

“Alright! Fine! I’m going. But, when I get back, it’s chair sitting, and I’m the guy who’s... sitting in the chair!” Lucas exclaims, storming out of the girls’ apartment.

El walks in, with another dress. “Is this a little too…” El asks, looking at Will who had hummus mushed onto his suit. “Wills, what happened?” She asked, almost dropping the dress in her hands.

“Hummus. I got the hummus,” he complained, looking down at the hummus on his jacket.

El sighs, looking at the jacket. “Ooooh! Honey, well we’ll find you something. Do you wanna wear my black jacket?” El offers, as she was the exact same size as Will, with El being just that little bit taller in her favourite heels – give to her by Max for her 18th birthday.

“That won’t go with this shirt though,” Will sighed, looking down at the jacket on the table and then at Will.

El sighed and nodded at Will’s statement. “No, you’re right. Well, we’ll find something. Let’s just get that sorted out. Come on,” El said, reaching over and wrapped her arm around Will’s shoulder.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, not out of that, not out of clothes!” He exclaims, knowing that Will would have to change his pants for it t match with his suit jacket.

“Max, can Will borrow that green suit jacket?” She asked as Max walked into the main room with a sheepish look on her face.

She sighed and announced with her head hung. “I called him...” she trailed off.

“Nooo!” They all exclaim, sighing at how little Max had bent against her own will and called her ex.

“Yes. Well, I got his machine and I left a message. But, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, because you know it was like a casual, breezy message,” El and Mike both rolled their eyes at this, knowing that Max could not be casual and breezy – at all. “It was breezy!” She exclaimed as doubt started to settle in her. “Oh God, what if it wasn’t breezy?”

Will looked over at Max and raised his eyebrow. “Well, how could it not be breezy, no, ‘cause you’re, you’re in such a breezy place,” he said, making El silently giggle.

She sighed at her judgemental friends. “Here, I got it. I’ll will play my message for you guys, and you can tell me if it’s breezy enough,” she said as she picked up the phone from its cradle.

Dustin raised a questioning eyebrow. “Max, how are you gonna do that?” He questions, making Max look away from the phone to him.

“I know the code to his answering machine,” Max shrugs like it’s the most obvious thing. Mike and El share a look, they’ve only been dating for a month, but they know the code to each other’s answering machines (Max is El’s best friend and roommate, as well as being Mike’s annoying little sister).

Mike sighed and walked over to his sister. “Okay, Maxie, I really don’t think this is the...” Mike started as he watched his sister start to dial the phone. “Okay, you’re dialling, you are dialling,” He looked over at his girlfriend, who was biting her lip over Max’s dilemma.

While Max dials the phone and gets into Richard’s answering machine, Lucas walks back in after getting changed into a suit and tie and sees Dustin stood near the chair. They both look wide-eyed at each other and make a race to get to the chair first, which results in Dustin winning.

Over the machine, Max’s ex-boyfriend’s voice comes through. “Hi, this is Richard. Please, leave a message at the tone,” he said, as Max then enters the code to get into Richard’s answering machine.

“You have two messages,” the automated voice for the machine came through as the group sighed – slightly weirded out by the fact Max knows her ex’s code.

Dustin looks in awe of the voice that came through. “Wow, what a cool job,” he said, making the group raise an eyebrow at him. He then says in the same tone as the voice that came through the voice machine. “ _’You have two new messages.’ ‘Please, pass the pie.’_ ,” he said, making El roll her eyes at one of her oldest friends.

That is when Max’s voice comes through the machine, drawing their attention away from Dustin’s comment to what Max is saying on the machine. “ _Hi, it’s Max. I’m just checking in, ‘cause I got this message from you and I didn’t know if it was old or new or what. So, I’m just checkin’. So let me know, or don’t, whatever. I’m breezy,_ ” she ends the message with, making El sigh – having hear how awkward Max sounded.

“Hey, you can’t say you’re breezy, that, that totally negates the breezy!” Dustin exclaims, giving some lightness to the heavy subject.

That is when another voice comes over the machine, once again drawing the attention to the device. “Hola, it’s me, yesterday was really fun. Call me about this weekend, okay,” and that was the end of her message. El’s heart ached for Max as she looked between Will and then up at Mike as everyone looked at Max, who had a shocked look on her face.

“Now, she sounded breezy,” Dustin commented, making the group roll their eyes, and continue to watch Max for her reaction. 

* * *

**Commercial Break**

* * *

Continued, El has gone over to sit next to Max, the trouble with her outfit, the fighting between the boys over the chair and Will’s suit jacket are forgotten as El comforted her only girlfriend in her time of need.

“He seeing someone...” she trailed off. “I can’t believe he’s seeing someone!” To Max it felt like her whole life was falling apart, it felt like she had been cheated on.

Will shakes his head and sits on the coffee table, avoiding his spoiled suit jacket. “Max, you don’t know that,” he says, putting his hand on her knee.

“Well, whose voice was that?” She looked over at Will, questioning. El shuffled over and wrapped her arms around Max from behind, and rested her head on her shoulder.

Lucas tries to come up with something to help Max. “Maybe it was his sister’s. You know, maybe it was his daughter’s,” Lucas suggested, making Max roll her eyes before she looked up in shock, knowing exactly who it was.

“Michelle! Of course, it was Michelle! Did it sound like Michelle?” Max asks, this is when El sighs – she hated Michelle when Max was dating Richard – she was too needy and too clingy to say she was Richard’s only daughter

Mike leans his head back as everyone started to annoy him when he looked back at the girls, he sees what is happening outside. “Oh, great. It’s starting to rain, that will make it easy to get a cab!” He says sarcastically, making El look up at him as a way to quieten him down.

Max sighs, “It was Michelle. It was definitely Michelle,” she says, knowing that there was no chance that she could compete with Michelle.

El looks down for a second, “Wills, you go with Max and try on her green jacket. If that doesn’t work, you can wear my grey silk one,” this then leaves El stumped. “Oh, gosh, what am I wearing?!” This catches Mike’s attention.

“You don’t... you don’t know what you’re wearing?” He asks, walking over to El.

El looks up at Mike with her big puppy eyes, the eyes that have always made Mike’s heart melt at the amount of innocence that can be hidden in them. “Well, hon-ey. I’m just trying to look nice for your big night,” she says, making Mike smile at the sweet gesture and kisses her cheek, and then proceeds to look at his watch to see how long they have left.

“Yeah, which, which we have to leave for in exactly twelve minutes. Alright, come on, I’ll just pick something out for you,” Mike says, taking her hand – unconsciously intertwining their hands, as they walked into El’s room, with her shutting the door behind her.

As well as Mike and El going into her room, Max took Will to find him her green suit jacket – to see if it matches alright. Leaving Lucas with Dustin, the latter sitting happily in the chair. “Alright, you will notice that I am fully dressed. I, in turn, have noticed that you are not. So in the words of A. A. Milne,  _‘Get out of my chair, dillhole!’_ ,” Lucas exclaimed, making Dustin sigh and buckle under.

“Okay,” he says as he then stands up, and takes the cushions with him, then starts to leave.

Lucas looks confused at Dustin. “What are you doing?” He asks, crossing his arms at his roommate and best friend.

Dustin shrugged. “You said I had to give you the chair, you didn’t say anything about the cushions,” he said simply, making Lucas’s eyes widen.

“The cushions are the essence of the chair!” Lucas exclaimed, watching as Dustin smirked.

“That’s right! I’m taking the essence!” He exclaimed in return as he left the room.

Lucas sighed. “Oh-ho, it’ll be back,” he then looks around the room and sees nobody. “Oh-ho, there’s nobody in the room,”

Mike walked back into the room, with his tail hung between his legs. “Look, I’m sorry, I thought it looked pretty,” Mike defended himself, as he sat on the three-seater sofa.

El crossed her arms and looked at her kind of stupid boyfriend. “Mike, that was a Halloween costume, unless you would like me to go to this thing as Little Bo Peep,” She stated, making Mike sigh heavily like he had done something to offend his girl.

“Look, I didn’t recognize it without that inflatable sheep,” Mike comments, remembering seeing his girlfriend in the costume, as she had a big hat on her head and the inflatable sheep on the end of a dog leash that she use to walk Chester with.

“Yeah, which, by the way, Lucas, I would like back one of these days,” El accused, making Lucas raise his eyebrows at this. El only wanted it back, because she now so used to sleeping next to Mike, is that when either of them had to pull an all-nighter, she needed the sheep for when Mike wasn’t a sleeping body next to hers.

Will walked from Max’s room and had another suit jacket hanging around his neck, that of a grass green colour, that was a part of one of Max’s pantsuits when she went to visit Lucas in his office. “Oh Ellie, good!” Will exclaimed when he saw her looking over at Lucas over the back of the sofa. “Listen, isn’t this perfect for me!” He smiles.

El gasps when she looks at her adoptive brother. “Oh, it’s perfect! But not for tonight,” she says, making Will nod and Mike raised an eyebrow at her statement.

“Well, of course not for tonight. Yeah, hi!” Will said, twirling around in the suit that hung over his neck.

“Not for tonight? Not for tonight?!” Mike exclaims as Will and El started looking over the suit. “Wh-what, what, what are you doing?” He asks as the pair started picking out the flaws in the suit.

El shakes her head, as she pushes herself and Will into her room. “No honey, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean it. I love you, I love you,” she repeats, as Mike rolls his eyes, but a blush started to flutter up his cheeks, as his attention was drawn over to Lucas.

“We used them as pillows when we went camping,” Lucas explained as vaguely as possible, causing confusion to flood Mike.

“What?” He asks, looking over his shoulder at the dark-skinned man.

Lucas then speaks up a little louder, but – for some reason, really shyly. “The sheep...” he trailed off, this time with Mike rolling his eyes at Lucas.

Mike holds his hands up to what Lucas had said. “Hey, what you do in your own time...” Mike also trailed off, making a pink blush rush up Lucas’s cheeks.

The girls’ purple apartment door open and in storms Dustin, who is a very angry man. “Where’s my underwear?!” He asks, making Mike look from Dustin to Lucas in shock.

Mike walks around the sofa to the kitchen table, where Lucas is stood. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Come on, come on, what? You took his underwear?” Mike asked Lucas, making the man just shrugged in return.

“He took my essence!” Lucas countered, the explanation not being a good enough reason.

Mike puts is head in one of his hands. “Okay, now hold on. Dustin, why, why can’t you just wear the underwear you’re wearing now?” Mike asks, making Dustin look at Mike like he has three heads.

“Because, I’m not wearing any underwear now,” Dustin stated, like it was the most obvious thing on the planet, making the other to males pull a face at Dustin’s statement.

Mike’s other hand came to join the one on his face already. “Okay, then why do you have to wear underwear tonight?” He asks, Dustin then rolling his eyes in return.

“It’s a rented tux. Okay. I’m not gonna go commando in another man’s fatigues!” He exclaimed, making Mike sigh heavily.

Lucas smirked at the man. “Well, then it looks like somebody is gonna have to give back somebody his cushions,” he crossed his arms, waiting for Dustin to do something.

Dustin knew what Lucas wanted, and he wasn’t going to get it. “Okay, you hide my clothes. I’m gonna do the exact opposite to you,” Dustin shouted, walking over to the apartment door.

Lucas threw his hands in the air. “What are you, what are you gonna show me my clothes?” Lucas asked, watching as Dustin threw open the door.

Dustin pointed a finger at Lucas. “Hey, opposite is opposite!” Dustin counters, as he slams the door closed behind him.

“He’s got nothing!” Lucas simply states, before looking at the chair in the girls’ living room.

Will walks back into the main room from El’s room, a huge bow covering the stain on his original suit jacket. “Okay, I’m ready!” he stated, tugging the suit jacket down a little.

“Oh, aaaah!”Lucas and Mike exclaim, looking at the bow stuck to Will’s suit.

Will shrugged as he checked it was properly checked that the bow was stuck on right. “Some of the jackets El has, I didn’t like, so, but she had this Christmas ribbon, and I thought, ‘Alright, fine I’ll be political’,” Will rolled his eyes as he went to sit down. But, was interrupted by Lucas.

“What are you supporting?” Lucas asks, making Will stop and roll his eyes again.

“Duh!! Christmas!” Will explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Mike sighs heavily. “Okay, hey, that’s okay with me! Two down and I have exactly twelve minutes...” Mike trailed off as he tapped the glass of his watch. “Wha, my watch stopped. My watch...” Mike then leaned over the sofa and showed Lucas. “Okay, see, the, the dinosaur isn’t going around any more,” he explains, as he grabs Lucas’s watch. “What time is it?” He asks when he checks the time. “It’s 7:33, I have seven minutes... I have seven minutes!!” Mike exclaimed, as his girlfriend walked out wearing another dress – but no shoes.

“Okay, Wills, quick, what shoes should I wear? The black or the purple?” She asks, holding two single pairs of high heels in her hands, as she gets her adoptive brother’s opinion, someone she favours.

Mike sighs, reaching the end of his tether. “Just, just pick one!” He exclaims, almost pulling his hair out.

Will could feel the pressure coming off Mike in waves. “Okay, okay, okay, the black. But, oh, do you have black, with the little strappys?” He asks, remembering seeing them in El’s closet a couple of weeks ago.

She nods. “Yeah, but, but those really go better with pants. Maybe I should wear pants?” She asks, tilted her body to the side as she asked her question.

Mike was on the verge of having to be put in a mental asylum. “Yeah, pants, what, what an idea. Or better yet, um, how about you go without any pants. Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do to me, but just get your butt in there and pick out any shoes that fit your feet, okay,” Mike said as he grabbed the shoes from her hands, and El tried to speak up – her wide puppy eyes filling with hurt. “No, no I don’t care if they match. I don’t care if they make your ankles or your knees or your earlobes look fat. Okay,” Mike said, throwing the shoes into her room.

“But I...” El trails off, making Mike shake his head and point into her room.

“No, no, no just do it. Go in there and pick something out so we can go,” Mike exclaimed, giving El a slight push into her room.

“Alright,” she sighs, walking into her room with her head held high and shut the door gently behind her, something she only does when she’s upset – something Mike had yet to experience.

Mike nods and lets El know, “Thank you!”

Max then walks out of her room, almost fully dressed save for her makeup. “Okay. I gotta call Michelle. I gotta see if that was her voice or not. I’m sorry, I just have to,” Max says walking to the phone.

“It was, it was her voice,” Mike said, trying to deter his sister from getting to the phone.

Lucas sighed. “Max, I think you’ve gone over to the bad place,” Lucas said, as Max dialled the number and put it on speakerphone.

This is when Michelle picks up her phone. “Hola!” No one spoke. “Hello,” she said again, not getting a reply. “Hello?” She asked, with Max hanging up on Michelle.

“Okay. That was her right?” Max said, looking around at her friends who are currently stood in the main room of the apartment she shares with El.

Will nods. “Definitely,” he stated.

Max sighs, leaning against the sofa. “See there you go. Woo! We’re out of the woods. Okay, I’ll get dressed now,” she said, walking over to her room.

Mike sighs. “Yay!” he exclaimed, as the phone started ringing.

Everyone looked at the phone and then at each other. Max needed to get dressed, Mike was having a mental breakdown and Lucas was mourning the loss of his cushions. “I’ll get it, okay,” Will volunteers, and answers the phone. Max takes more steps to her room. “Hi, Max and El’s,” he listens to the voice on the other end. “Yeah, just a second, can I ask who’s calling?” Will asks, and at the answer – he pulled a face. He puts a hand over the speaker and says to Max. “Oh, ew, it’s Michelle! Ew! She, she must have that Caller ID thing. You should get that,” Will says as he hands the phone over to Max.

Max sighed and put the phone to her ear. “Uh, Michelle. Yeah, that was me, I-I dialled your number by mistake,” she comes up with an explanation, and listen to what she has to say. “Oh, you’re so sweet. Yeah, we were a great couple. I know I really miss him. Well, you know how it is, it’s that...” she trails off as Michelle starts speaking again.

Lucas looks at Will who had sat in the seat nearest him. “You know what’s weird. Donald Duck never wore pants. But whenever he’s getting out of the shower, he always puts a towel around his waist. I mean, what is that about?” He asks, making Will nod in reply, that had always been something that stumped him.

“Michelle, I only beeped in so I could hear my message. I mean that’s allowed!” Max exclaimed into the phone. “Yeah-huh! I mean, look, yeah, you know what I would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell your Dad about,” Max asked, hearing Michelle’s reply. “What do you mean, you’re not comfortable with this? Come on, we’re friends!” Max exclaims, trying to rope Michelle in, as the woman hung up on Max. “That bitch always hated me. I’m calling her back,” Max said, as she started to dial the number.

“No, no, no, no. Tick, tick, tick, tick,” Mike echoed in Max’s ear, making her sigh and leave the phone.

“Okay, fine,” she says, as she runs into her room.

The boys all look at each other for a second. “They got a phone in there, right?” Lucas asks, making Mike sigh.

Will nods. “Okay, we’re on it. We’re on it,” he exclaimed as they both ran into Max’s room.

El walks out of her bedroom, wearing sweatpants and an old Hawkins Middle School sweatshirt that was once Mike’s, that he had only recently given to her when she was cold, and she was yet to return it. Mike gaped at her as she walked over the small kitchen table. “Um. I know it says  _‘Black tie optional’_ , but, um this may be pushing it a little, um,” Mike comments as El walks over to the kitchen table.

“I’m not gonna gooo,” she said, putting her paperwork on the table and started working.

Mike looked confused at her. “You’re not going to go?” He asks, feeling upset that his favourite person on the planet wasn’t going.

“No, I think I’m gonna catch up on my correspondences,” El said, opening the books as she started writing.

Mike blinked at her, wondering what was going through her brain at this moment in time. “How, how, um how can you not be going?” He asks, wondering why she isn’t going.

“I'm not gonna gooo, so I think that will accomplish the not going,” she said, with no emotion, as she continued to write her correspondences.

Mike shrugged. “Um, you know, just out of curiosity...” He trailed off, looking down at the love of his life.

She shrugged in return “Well, ever since I was humiliated and yelled at in front of my friends,” El starts, guilt already running through Mike’s veins. “I’m just, I don’t know, not in a museum benefitty kind of mood,” she said, turning her head away from Mike after she addressed him, and continued with her paperwork.

“Right. Right, okay, okay,” Mike said, as he tried to wrap his head around what she had just said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I yelled,” he continued, trying to hold her hand, which moved when she flicked the page.

She shakes her head. “It’s fine,” she countered, brushing the apology off her shoulder.

He blinked repeatedly. “No, but you’re – you’re mad,” he said, looking at her with his signature ‘puppy dog eyes’.

“I’m not mad,” she countered, not looking up at the one she loves.

“No?” He asked he was completely confused over what was happening.

“I’m just not going,” El shrugged, not paying much attention to the love of her life, the guy she shared danced with at their middle school Snowball, El dancing with him because she didn’t want him to seem lonely. With Mike going with his gut and pressed a kiss to her lips during  _Every Breath You Take_  by The Police.

Mike looked down at her. “You’re not going...” Mike trailed off, feeling like the walls were going to collapse around him.

“Right,” El nods.

Mike blinks repeatedly. “Okay. You know that I-I have to go,” Mike says, looking at her, wanting to hold her tightly in his arms.

“Um, hum,” she nods, again.

“Right. So is it gonna be like  _‘I’m abandoning you while your upset,’_?” Mike asked, as El flicked to another page and started writing again.

“No,” was the one word answer.

Once again, Mike blinks repeatedly. “No, because you’re not upset?” He asked, again, needing the clarification.

She nods, for the third time. “Right,” she confirms.

“About the yelling?” He asks, looking down at her.

“Right, and the humiliating,” she adds.

He nods, looking around the room. “Oh, well, of course, the humiliating,” Mike awkwardly looks at the ground, the guilt heavily running through his bones. “So, so we, we’re okay,” Mike states, looking at El for confirmation.

“Um, hum,” she says, not taking her eyes off the pieces of paper in front of her.

Mike nods. “We’re good,” he puts his hands behind his back and swings back and forth on the balls of his feet for a second.

“Right,” she repeats, making Mike sigh, that has been all he has gotten out of her since she came out of her room dressed like this.

“Okay. Honey?” Mike asks, as El finally looks up from the papers to look at the countertop.

She turns to look at him. “Yes, Mike?” She asks.

“I love you,” Mike cooes, as he goes to kiss her, however, she turns her face away from him, making him rub his head against the side of her curly hair.

The screaming starts coming from Max’s bedroom as Will exclaims, “Get away from that! No!” he comes back into the main room, holding the phone and its cord. “She’s just getting dressed,” he smiled, sorting out his tux before dumping the phone and its cord onto the coffee table.

Lucas walked out after Will, looking between Will and Max’s room. “Is it wrong that I was totally aroused by that?” Lucas asks, making everyone else roll their eyes, they know who he was aroused by, and she isn’t even in the main room at the moment.

This is when Dustin chooses to walk into the apartment, wearing a huge amount of clothes on his person. “Okay, buddy-boy. Here it is. You hide my clothes, I’m wearing everything you own!” Dustin exclaimed, El raised an eyebrow at what was going on.

“Oh my God! That is so not the opposite of taking somebody’s underwear!” Lucas exclaimed, making El look between the two questioning what the hell had happened.

“Look at me! I’m Lucas! Could I be wearing any more clothes?” Dustin acted like Lucas, this time making Mike roll his eyes. “Maybe if I wasn’t going commando...” he trailed off; everyone else scrunching their noses at Dustin’s comment.

Lucas pulls a disgusted face. “Oooo-ooh!”

Dustin nods, smirking. “Yeah. Whew, it’s hot with all this stuff on. I, ah, better not do any, I don’t know, lunges,” Dustin starts doing some lunges, this is when Mike decides to break the argument up.

“Okay, okay! Enough, enough with the lunging!” Mike shouts, finally getting sick of everything. “No! I’m sick of this. Okay. I’ve had it up to here with you two!” Mike holds his hand half a foot above his head. “Neither you can come to the party!” He stated as Lucas and Dustin looked at Mike with raised eyebrows.

“Jeez, what a baby,” came from Lucas, whereas Dustin piped up, “Yeah, Mike, way to ruin it. I was just going to get dressed,”

Mike sighed and looked at the pair. “You know what I don’t care! The only person I cared about getting dressed, is the one person that says she’s not even gonna go,” Mike pointed to El and crouched at her side. “Look, Ellie, I’m sorry. Okay. Look, I-I wa, I was a mouthbreather. I’m sorry I yelled. I want you there, I need you there,” El didn’t answer Mike as she continued to look at him with doubt. “Look, what, what can I do that can show you how much, how much I want you there?” Mike asked, reaching over and grabbed El’s hands with his.

“You could drink the fat,” Dustin offers, making Mike glare at him and El raise an eyebrow in question.

“Hi, welcome to an adult conversation,” Mike states sarcastically, before El clamps on his hand and thinks.

After she’s finished thinking for 5 seconds, she spoke up. “No, no, no, now wait, wa, wa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. That actually, uh, that sounds interesting,” El said, looking down at a crouching Mike.

“What?” Mike asks, looking up at El.

“I think you should drink the fat,” El says, making Mike look at her with widened eyes.

Dustin smiled. “Yay!” He exclaimed, happy that someone had taken his idea.

Mike sighed heavily as the glass of fat was handed to him. “Okay, okay. If that is what it takes to show you how much you mean to me, and how much I want you there. Then that’s what I’ll do,” Mike said, making El widen her eyes at her boyfriend.

Will looked at the glass in Mike’s hand and looked scared. “Oh, wait, let me get you another glass. That’s been sitting out,” Will said, as he started to reach over for a clean glass.

“I think this will be fine,” Mike says, making Will nod his head and stands back where he was. “Okay, just a vanilla milkshake, with chicken bits floating in it. Cheers,” he goes to drink the glass, but El reaches out and stops him before he starts drinking it.

She gently takes the glass out of his hand as she spoke. “No, no, no, wait! Okay, okay. Don’t! I’ll go, I’ll go!” She exclaimed, looking up at him with her own pair of ‘heart-eyes’.

Mike smiles as he looks at her. “You will?!” He says, holding her face.

“You were really gonna do that, weren’t you?” She asks, covering her mouth with her hands.

Mike shrugs. “Well, yeah,” he says like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

El felt like she was going to cry. “You were gonna drink the fat!” She exclaimed, as her eyes started to water.

Mike smiled down at her as Dustin spoke up. “Let’s see what else he’ll do!” He chanted, earning a glare from the middle Wheeler.

“How about instead you,” Mike points to Dustin, “go get changed,” he then points to Lucas. “You, give him back his underwear! I’m gonna go get a cab, and I want everyone downstairs in two minutes! Max!” He called his older sister as he left a kiss on his girlfriend’s face and ran out of the girls’ apartment.

The next to leave was Dustin and Lucas, Lucas to give Dustin is underwear back, and Dustin to get dressed. As they walked out, into the hall, Dustin lunges as he walks. “Stop it. Stop it!” Lucas exclaims as they walk, Dustin stops. El walks into her room to get dressed. Max then runs into the living room and starts dialling on the phone.

Will heard Max walk in. “Mike went to get a cab so we can all...” Will turned around and sees Max on the phone. “No, wh-what are you doing? No, Max, no!” Will exclaims, walking over to Max.

“Hi, this is Richard,” came his voice over the machine.

“You have three new messages,” the automated voice announced, making Will raise his eyebrows at what Max was about to do.

Max smirked and looked down at the machine. “Not anymore!” She exclaimed, pressing a button on the machine.

“Message erased,” the machine stated. “To record a message begin speaking at the tone,” the machine said and sighed.

She opened her mouth and started speaking, unknowing what she has done. “Hi, uh, Richard, it’s Max. Um, listen, I did something kind of crazy tonight, um, maybe I’m getting my period or something, I don’t know. Um, anyway, I, I, I beeped into your machine and I heard a message that, that freaked me out, and um, you know what Michelle will tell you the rest. I, I, um, I'm sorry, okay, I, I hope that we can forget the whole thing. Okay, bye,” she said, clicking another button on the machine.

“Your outgoing message has now been changed,” the machine said, making both Max and Will’s eyes widen.

“Outgoing! Did they say outgoing?! Not, outgoing!” She exclaims as she pressed yet another button.

That is when Max’s voice came through on the machine. “ _Hi, uh, Richard, it’s Max. Um, listen, I did something kind of crazy tonight, um, maybe I’m getting my period or something, I don’t know,_ ” This is when it cut off and Max gaped at the machine. “Nooo!” she screamed.

Will raised an eyebrow. “How did you do that?” Will asks, he has wanted to change his outgoing message for a while.

“I don’t know!” She exclaimed, pressing buttons on the machine.

“Good-bye,” the machine said, cutting off.

“Noooooo!” She exclaimed, reaching for the phone again.

Mike then walks into the apartment, after calling a cab. “Okay, okay, okay. I’ve got two cabs and no people!” Mike exclaimed as he put his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Go! Go! Go!” He said as he started to push the pair to the door.

“Maybe we could call the phone company! Maybe they could change the message! Maybe they can change his number,” Max said, as Will pulled her up from her seat and started to take her to the door.

“Yeah, after this, I think he’ll be doing that himself,” Will said as they left the girls’ apartment, Max quickly grabbed her keys from the countertop.

“El!” He calls to her, waiting for his beautiful girl to walk in, which she does, her dress is a floor-length light green dress that complements her figure, making Mike’s jaw drop to the floor when he sees her. “Wow! You, uh, you look, wow!” He gasps, reaching over for her.

El looks at her watch, given to her by Joyce when she properly joined the Hopper-Byers clan. “And, I still have about five seconds to spare,” she comments, before leaning in and kissing him happily. When they separate, Mike is completely blissed out and El grins at him. “Okay, that was about seven seconds,” she said, and Mike shook his head.

“So, we’re a little late,” he shrugged, resting his hand on her lower back.

She rolls her eyes at the giant man-child stood before her. “Come on,” she sighed, as they started to leave, Mike trailing after her like a lost puppy. “Oh! And, uh, by the way…” she trailed off, turning around to look at him.

“What?” He asks, looking at her with a look of confusion on his face.

She smirks, “I’m going commando, too,” she said, as started to walk towards the door, Mike trailed behind her – now he didn’t want to go to the stupid event.

“Awwww!!!” He complained, looking at his beautiful girlfriend as she walked in front of him. 

* * *

**Closing Credits**

* * *

Later on, at the banquet, El is sat next to Mike, happily holding his hand proud (having finally got her man), when a man walked over and shook Mike’s hand. “Dr Wheeler, Sherman Whitfield, London Institue,” he addressed himself, sitting down in a vacant seat.

“Wow! What a pleasure!” Mike smiles, looking over his shoulder, looking at his proud girl. ****

“Well, I have to tell you, I was quite impressed with your paper on Pre-Cretaceous fossils. Yeah, it confirmed everything I have written,” Whitfield commented, as Lucas walked back into the room, and El instantly bit her lip, knowing what was going to happen.

He taps on Whitfield’s shoulder. “Excuse me? Hi,” he said, waving at the man.

“Yes?” He looks down his nose at the dark-skinned man. El pulled a face at this, and gripped Mike’s hand, making him notice this. How much of a jerk this London guy was.

Lucas shrugs. “Well, your kind of sitting in my seat,” Lucas states like it is the most obvious thing on the planet, El shuts her eyes closed, hoping Lucas doesn’t pick a fight.

“What do you mean, your seat?” Whitfield asks, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow as to why this man was saying that he’d taken Lucas’s seat.

Lucas continues to look at the man. “I mean, I was sitting there...” he trails off, expecting the man to get up.

“But, you got up!” The older man stated, making Mike and El sigh quietly next to them.

“But I never left the room!” Lucas exclaimed, holding the brownie in his hand as evidence.

“But, you left the chair area,” the jerk of an older guy explain, clearly brushing Lucas’s comment off as he turned back to look at Mike.

“Alright, that’s it, give me your underwear!” Lucas exclaims, making El and Mike’s eyes widen and the older man turned around to look at Lucas like he was crazy. 

* * *

**End.**


End file.
